E-Commerce SEO Best Practices
If you’re looking to drive traffic to your website, it needs to be highly optimized to garner strong results on search engines. While everyone talks about SEO and how great of a marketing tool it is, not everyone understands how it works. That’s where we come in.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Put simply, SEO is an umbrella term for attracting visitors to your website through free, organic or natural search results on search engines, such as Google. The better SEO your website has, the better chance you’ll have at being featured on one of the first results pages on a search engine.
SEO helps even the playing field among companies. While lots of websites can pay through the roof for ads, this doesn’t allow smaller fish to compete. Recognizing this noticeable flaw in the system, search engines display both paid and organic advertising. So even if your business or online store is small and just starting out, through coherent and expert SEO, you could be ranking alongside massive companies.
While some people think SEO involves throwing around a couple of keywords here and there, it’s actually a fairly complex process that requires the insight and skills of experts thoroughly versed in this marketing practice, which is why working with an e-commerce SEO agency is always recommended to get positive results.
If your company is new to the SEO world, don’t feel like it’s too late to start. As long as you’re delivering information your target audience wants to see, there’s no reason why you can’t begin improving your ranking today.
How Does E-Commerce SEO Work?
Similar to a standard website, online stores need to be optimized in order to attract customers. This is why every last feature of your website is so important. From product descriptions to your contact page, all of the content on your website matters.
Think about e-commerce SEO in your day-to-day life. If you were interested in buying a green dress for the summer, you’d probably Google something along the lines of “summer green dress.” Lots of product descriptions would fail to list these keywords, resulting in their pages getting lost among other websites when they do, in fact, have green dresses suitable for summer. The more valuable keywords you use, the better. But be careful; overusing keywords is a process known as “stuffing,” and it can do more harm than good. That’s why it’s critical to work with an e-commerce SEO company that knows how to strike the happy balance search engines like.
E-commerce SEO generally focuses on things, such as metadata, product descriptions, link structures, navigational structures, user experience and general page content. The more pages you create for your website, the better your chances of optimizing your products. This is why each of the products you sell should have its own page.
While lots of websites showcase endless pages of content, e-commerce pages have to be a bit more careful. In an age where everyone wants visual satisfaction instantly, people are drawn to images and videos. But that doesn’t mean text doesn’t have a place when it comes to growing a business.
SEO for e-commerce involves both standard, high-performing keywords and long-tail keywords. This could be something like a “dress” or “resort sun dress.” Both are important, but long-tail keywords let you focus on the product you’re selling. Instead of competing with general keywords other companies are using, long-tail keywords help you attract a specific audience that’s more likely to convert.
Elements for Successful E-Commerce SEO
The important thing to understand about e-commerce SEO is that it needs to be done correctly to draw in your target audience. While you want to generate traffic to your page, what ultimately matters is whether that traffic converts. The more specific you can be with your SEO, the better chances you’ll have at scoring leads who will make a purchase.
Why Strategy Is Important
E-commerce SEO services involve prioritizing pages that are already performing well, scouring out your competition and creating a workflow you can stick to. Think about the products your company is looking to push and what your end goal is. Are you looking for customers to shop your new summer collection? Or are you hoping to drive traffic to your website’s blog? Each of these pages requires a different approach.
Even things as small as correctly naming the images you display on your website matter when it comes to SEO. Image alternate attributes need to be included. Metadata should never be skipped. While this may feel overwhelming and confusing, we’re here to help you every step of the way.
Targeted Keyword Research
Before you can publish content on your website, it’s crucial to perform targeted keyword research. Simply adding a few descriptive words isn’t enough if you’re looking to rank on the first couple of pages of search engines.
Keyword research involves finding and analyzing various search terms people enter on a search engine when looking for a particular product. Keyword research tells you what type of keywords you should be using, how popular they are and their current ranking status.
While your company should maintain a voice that’s consistent with your brand, you should also think about content creation in the ways it serves customers. While it’s all well and good to make a great website, you have to remember who you’re creating the website for. Design your content around what consumers are looking for, not the other way around. This helps solve their pain points and positions you as a retailer looking to add value.
As SEO practices continue to evolve, keyword research looks slightly different from how it did 10 years ago. But the most important element remains the same: relevant keywords matter when it comes to achieving a strong rating on search engines. SEO tells you what’s performing well, gives you an insight into what your customers are looking for and helps you position your products in a way that will sell.
Blog Content
All too often, businesses neglect one of the most important free tools they have at their disposal — blog content. Blog content isn’t just for travel writers and moms. It’s for e-commerce stores looking to provide customers with worthwhile information that solves their problems.
Let’s say your company sells men’s formal wear. Your blog posts should be designed to attract your target audience through relevant information they find useful. This could include blog posts about how to pick your first suit or what color scheme would go with your complexion. You can create endless content for your blog. Even better, your blog can be optimized in a way that attracts readers. This not only positions you as an authority on your subject matter, which is a big win with search engines, but it also helps drive traffic to your page simply by addressing common consumer issues.
Website Structure
To make things even more complex, the content you publish on your website isn’t the only thing that matters. How you format and structure that content affects your overall SEO rating.
E-commerce SEO agencies can help you with your overall website structure to ensure your page is optimized in a way that search engines like. This includes the appropriate use of images, headlines, descriptive URLs and more. Your website should have a great user experience that makes customers want to visit over and over again. Think about it this way — websites like Google act as an authority when it comes to recommending websites. It’s not going to put a bad website that doesn’t address relevant search queries on its first page.
While SEO is all about understanding the needs of your customers, it’s equally about structuring your website in a way that works. Here at OmniLyft, we have the experience and knowledge needed to achieve both.
Public Relations Outreach
SEO and public relations work together to create brand awareness through back links, exposure and insights that help produce a smart and worthwhile brand strategy. Public relations uses strategic communication to build relationships between companies and customers. It influences public opinion and helps get the word out about your products, services and brand. It also boosts your overall SEO for your website, resulting in a win-win on both fronts.
While companies like Google favor high-performing websites that contain valuable information for customers, it also favors websites that are listed by other reputable sources. If links to your website are included in noteworthy publications, this tells search engines your website is reputable and can be trusted. The more back links you have with reputable sources, the better your SEO will be overall.
It’s also helpful to utilize relevant keywords in your press release titles and text. Once you develop your strategy with an e-commerce SEO company, they’ll be able to maintain a strong level of SEO across all forms of media.
Identifying Technical Problems
Did you know over half of people will leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load? It’s true! And search engines take note of that type of behavior. If your website is loaded with technical issues, you aren’t delivering a good customer experience. This will negatively affect your SEO even if everything else looks great. That’s why it’s so important to approach SEO as a whole to achieve a worthwhile result.
Repeat Keyword Research
While keywords are an incredibly important part of SEO, you need to exercise caution when including them on your website. While it can be helpful to repeat certain keywords throughout your website, it should always be done in a straightforward way that adds value. If it looks like you’re keyword stuffing or simply adding keywords where they don’t fit, Google will notice.
Why Use SEO for E-commerce?
SEO is one of the most important things you can do for e-commerce. It drives traffic to your website, improves sales, builds brand awareness and tells the world that you’re a reputable source to be trusted.
SEO helps smaller companies that don’t have millions to spend on marketing compete with large retailers. It’s an affordable way to target your desired customer base, while positioning you as a leader in your industry. If you’re looking to grow as a business and reach new people, SEO is a must.
How to Develop an E-commerce SEO Strategy
Developing an e-commerce SEO strategy on your own may feel daunting. That’s why we don’t recommend going it alone. We’re here to help!
Our accomplished team of marketers is well-versed in the world of SEO and has the insight, skills and experience needed to take your business to the next level. We conduct thorough research on your competitors, target audience, keywords and more. We’ll develop a cohesive e-commerce SEO strategy that helps you stand above the rest.
Get in Touch
If you’re looking to tackle the exciting world of SEO to boost sales and drive traffic to your e-commerce store, get in touch with our team today to find out how we can help. We’re here to assist you each step of the way, and we can’t wait to elevate your brand, increase sales and uncover your company’s true potential.
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