Do you have an online business that you want to promote, but not sure how to begin? This quick guide will take you from a novice to a pro in all things ecommerce SEO! Let’s discuss what ecommerce SEO is, and then talk about some of the methods you can use to develop an ecommerce SEO strategy.
Ecommerce SEO is the search engine optimization of an online store. It’s pretty similar to regular SEO; content creation and keyword research, which are crucial to normal SEO efforts, also play a role in ecommerce SEO.
But with ecommerce SEO, the goal is slightly different. You’re not just trying to generate more organic traffic to your store, but (perhaps more indirectly), you’re trying to generate business. We recommend using an SEO-friendly e-commerce platform like Shopify.
Site Architecture
The organizational structure of any website is important, doubly so when you’re trying to ensure that customers can find the individual products in your store.
There are a lot of little things you can do to tweak the structure of your website, but the main goal is to keep every page as few clicks from the homepage as possible. A good rule of thumb is to keep every page within three clicks or fewer from the homepage.
Keyword research
If you want to appear in search engines, you need to know what your customers are looking for. Normally, this would involve informational keyword research, like “best dog parks in Atlanta”.
Ecommerce keyword research is a little different from your typical keyword research, though, as you’ll also need to focus on commercial keywords that show buying intent, like “blue dog collars”. Look into variations of products, product names, and competing brands.
Content Creation
It’s common for websites to write blogs, informational websites, and other content to increase their visibility and build their reputation.
Ecommerce websites can do this too, but they also have the additional task of creating engaging and descriptive product pages. This is crucial, because product page descriptions can help search engines and customers alike understand what you’re selling. Make sure all of your product listings include detailed information about color and sizing options, return and shipping information, and any other information that might make or break a sale.
Perform an Audit
Finally, an SEO audit is the best way to discover any of the more hard-to-find site issues that may be impacting users of your website. An audit can help you analyze the structure of your website and see if you have any more technical problems, like slow loading times or duplicate URLs.
An audit can be especially crucial for a large ecommerce site with multiple product pages. You can ensure that all of your pages have the correct URLs, title tags, and meta descriptions.
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