About 68% of activities online start with a search engine like Google. In fact, 51% of all website traffic starts with organic searches.
Today, 61% of marketers say growing their search engine optimization (SEO) and organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. Leads from SEO are eight times more likely to become customers than those from traditional ads.
Unfortunately, about 75% of search engine users never look beyond the first page of results.
Without a strong eCommerce SEO strategy, consumers might never find your eCommerce store online. After all, there are millions of stores to choose from. With SEO for eCommerce websites, you can boost your organic rankings.
Ranking at the top of a search engine results page will ensure consumers see your website. Each time you appear, brand awareness will grow. SEO can also help you generate website traffic, leads, and sales.
Not sure how to experience online success with on-page SEO for eCommerce website optimization? Here are eight simple strategies that can help.
With these tips, you can boost your rankings and draw in more business!
Set your business up for success. Get started with this simple eCommerce SEO checklist today.
1. Gather Research
Before rushing to use SEO for eCommerce websites, it’s important to gather as much information as possible. Otherwise, you could make costly assumptions while developing your eCommerce SEO strategy. Instead, you can use the information you gather to avoid making costly mistakes.
For example, you can gather the information you need to better appeal to your target audience.
Start by determining who your customers are and what they care about while shopping online. Consider using your eCommerce website’s analytics to determine the consumer’s:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Household income
- Marital status
- Buying behaviors
- Interests
- Hobbies
- Pain points
- Education
- Language
- Career
You might need to segment your customers into different buyer personas. Then, you can learn more about each group. Researching your audience will help you personalize your SEO blog content with each persona in mind.
Consider why consumers need your products, too. What solutions are you offering?
Otherwise, consider your unique value proposition. Your unique value will help you stand out from other eCommerce stores online.
Understand Search Intent
As you develop your eCommerce SEO strategy, it’s important to consider the shopper’s search intent. What do consumers expect to find while online?
For example, a consumer might want to look for your specific products. Perhaps they’re looking for how-to guides for using your products instead. Maybe they want to read a product comparison guide or watch a video.
Understanding the user’s search intent will help you appeal to their needs. Otherwise, your eCommerce SEO content won’t appeal to readers.
Understanding the user’s search intent will also help you personalize your content.
Over 80% of consumers say being treated like a person (rather than a number) is essential for winning their business. Another 74% get annoyed when website content has nothing to do with their interests.
Today, about 63% of consumers expect personalization as a standard of service. In fact, 52% will switch brands if a company doesn’t personalize communications.
Personalizing your content with a distinct audience in mind could help you attract more people to your website. As you generate more website traffic, Google will start to take notice. Your search engine rankings might improve as a result.
Meanwhile, you could generate more leads and sales, improving your ROI in the process.
In fact, 50% of consumers will pay more from brands that do a good job of providing personally relevant content. About 80% are more likely to shop when brands offer personalized experiences.
Using personalization could boost your marketing ROI by eight times while lifting sales by 10% or more as well.
Personalization will help you connect with consumers on an emotional level. You can empathize with their needs and offer a solution. Consumers might feel more inclined to read your content as a result.
During the research stage, learn as much as you can about the customers’ wants and needs.
Complete Keyword Research
As you work through this eCommerce SEO checklist, it’s also essential to gather keyword research before you start writing. Your keyword research will inform your content creation strategy. It can also help you learn more about the user’s search intent.
You can use these keyword research tools to develop a list of focus keywords:
- Ahrefs
- Answer the Public
- SEMRush
- Google Trends
- Google Keyword Planner
You can also work with an experienced digital marketing agency. They can help you gather keyword research before developing your eCommerce SEO strategy. You can learn more about ecommerce search engine optimization here.
Focus on long-tail keywords that are made up of four or more words. These keywords are more precise. One-word keywords, on the other hand, could make it difficult for consumers to find your content.
Look for keywords that are phrased as questions, too. Then, answer those questions within your content.
Focus on keywords that have a high search volume but low competition.
Google determines search engine rankings and results based on:
- Context of the search
- The user’s search intent
- The relationship between words in a search
Understanding consumers will help you choose keywords that suit their search intent.
Gather secondary keywords as well. When adding keywords to your content, it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing. Using the same keyword too many times could hurt your search engine rankings.
Once you have a list of keywords to work with, you can start using SEO for eCommerce websites.
2. Update Your Website
Before creating content, take the time to audit your website. A slow, outdated, or unattractive website could hurt your search engine rankings. If your site is difficult to use or navigate, visitors might leave without shopping.
Your website’s design and development could make or break your eCommerce SEO strategy.
In fact, about 38.5% of consumers judge a business by how its website looks at first glance. Another 38% will stop interacting with an unappealing website. Meanwhile, 40% will stop engaging with a poor website.
Poor user experiences drive 50% of users to choose one of your competitors instead.
If people leave without exploring your content, your bounce rate will rise.
A high bounce rate can cause your search engine rankings to drop. Without stronger SEO rankings, you could struggle to generate traffic.
First, run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Mobile-Friendly Test, and Core Web Vitals. Make sure your site is fast, mobile-optimized, and user-friendly.
Improving your website’s user experience could encourage visitors to explore and shop. You can improve the user experience by:
- Improving the navigation
- Avoiding jargon
- Writing with short sentences and paragraphs
- Breaking text into headings and subheadings
- Simplifying forms
- Simplifying the check-out process
- Adding an SSL certificate for security
- Maintaining brand consistency
You can also work with an experienced digital marketing agency to improve your website.
Mobile Optimization
Visitors who have a negative experience on their mobile devices are 62% less likely to make a future purchase. It doesn’t matter how well-designed or data-driven your future campaigns are.
In fact, even a one-second delay in mobile load times can hurt conversions by up to 20%.
Make sure your website is designed with mobile users in mind. More people are relying on their smartphones to shop. If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, your sales could drop.
In fact, Google now uses mobile-first indexing when designing rankings. It looks at the mobile version of your site first. If it’s not optimized, competing businesses will rank ahead of your site.
You could struggle to generate brand awareness and website traffic if your rankings drop.
Speed Up
It’s also important to make sure your site is fast. Consumers don’t want to wait around for pages to load. Run your site through PageSpeed Insights to determine what’s causing the lag.
For example, you might want to use a content delivery network or improve your hosting.
You might need to compress images or remove plugins from your site as well.
Core Web Vitals
Google’s Core Web Vitals are a series of user-centric ranking factors. Focusing on the Core Web Vitals can improve the user experience. Remember, a positive experience will encourage people to explore your site.
Your clickthrough rates and dwell times might improve, which could boost your rankings.
3. Create High-Quality Content
Once you’ve gathered your audience and keyword research, you can start creating content with your readers in mind.
When creating blog content, focus on EAT. EAT stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Establishing EAT within your content could boost your credibility.
Building your credibility could encourage consumers to trust your brand. Brand trust could encourage more people to shop from your eCommerce store.
As you develop eCommerce SEO content, consider different formats, including:
- Blog posts/articles
- Videos (testimonial, how-to, Q&A, company culture, etc.)
- eBooks
- Polls
- Webinars
- Quizzes
- Infographics
- VR/AR
When creating content for your eCommerce SEO strategy, focus on quality over quantity, too. Make sure you’re providing readers with helpful, informative content. Providing people with the information they need will help you generate more traffic.
As you create each post, make sure to have a single focus keyword in mind.
4. Start Optimizing
As you begin creating your content, start using on-page SEO for eCommerce website optimization. On-page SEO will help you optimize each post for a focus keyword. The focus keyword should appear in the:
- URL
- Page title
- Opening and closing paragraphs
- Body text
- Meta description
- Image file name
- Image alt text
- An H1 header
Don’t forget to use secondary keywords throughout the content.
Format for Featured Snippets
As you work through this eCommerce SEO checklist, try to think ahead. For example, you can format your content for featured snippets. Featured snippets appear at the top of search engine result pages.
They can appear as:
- Videos
- Q&As
- Paragraphs
- List
- Tables
- Charts
- Graphs
- Images
Consider using Schema to properly format your content. Otherwise, try to format your posts with a specific snippet in mind. For example, you can add a bullet list outlining your content at the beginning of the post.
Ranking for featured snippets will ensure consumers see your website before any other on a search page.
5. Build Links
As you use SEO for eCommerce websites, it’s important to consider your link-building strategy. You’ll see backlinks, internal links, and external links.
The more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it generates from Google. Backlinks are links that appear on one website that send readers to your content. Google claims backlinks are one of its top ranking factors.
You can generate backlinks by guest blogging on someone else’s website. Then, link to your own site within the content.
Internal links send readers to other pages on your eCommerce site. Consider linking them to specific product pages.
External links send readers from your site to other sites. You can link to data, research, or other posts.
6. Track the Trends
Google’s search engine algorithm and machine learning abilities grow throughout the year. If you want to use SEO for eCommerce websites effectively, keep up with the trends.
For example, video content is becoming more popular this year. Try to create videos that show off your products. for more check StealthSeminar.com.
Voice search is gaining popularity, too. Focus on longtail keywords that are posed as questions. You could start appearing for these searches to generate traffic.
7. Start Sharing
Make sure to share your content online. Sharing your content will help you generate more website traffic. Generating traffic from multiple sources will help boost your rankings.
Share your content through an email newsletter or on social media.
8. Work With a Pro
You don’t have to develop your eCommerce SEO strategy alone. Consider partnering with an experienced digital marketing agency. Their experience and expertise can boost your rankings.
With their help, you can reach the top of a search engine results page. Ranking at the top will ensure consumers see your eCommerce website.
Then, you can generate more traffic and boost sales.
SEO for eCommerce Websites: 8 Tips for Stronger Rankings
Set your eCommerce store up for success. Consider using SEO for eCommerce websites this year. With a strong eCommerce SEO strategy, you can rank ahead of the competition.
Then, you can generate more website traffic, leads, and sales for lasting success.
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