Let’s be honest: SEO is complicated. If you run an ecommerce business, you know that driving more traffic to your website is a must. Building up a good SEO strategy, as well as maintaining it, is the tricky part.
With Google changing its search algorithms constantly, it can feel impossible to stay on top of the ecommerce SEO game. However, we’ve compiled a list of the nine easiest ways to boost SEO on your ecommerce site today, so you know exactly how to get started.
Choose the Perfect Keywords
Although many steps go into picking the perfect keywords to target, keyword research is actually the easiest part of e-commerce SEO. You should have your keywords settled on before moving on because you’ll want to include those keywords in the rest of your content.
1. Keyword Research
You’ll want to seek out keywords that show “buying intent,” which are terms that customers put into the search engine when looking for the best product or service to buy that will solve their problem. If your ecommerce specializes in international specialty brews, you might target the keywords “best at-home Columbian coffee” versus informational searches like “how to make espresso.” The former search term is not only hyper-specific to your brand (we’ll talk more about long-tail keywords in a moment), but it’s also obvious that a customer is looking to buy something to make at home.
So, how do you find these perfect keywords? If you already have a few simple keywords in mind, try typing them into the Google search bar. See what other suggestions come up when you’re typing. Enter your search terms, then scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the “related searches.” This will give you a good idea of other terms customers search for.
You can also try this on Amazon or other competitor ecommerce stores. See what keywords customers are searching for to find the product you sell. This should give you a good foundation for your keyword research.
There’s also an entire arsenal of keyword research tools for you to try. Google Keyword Planner is a free option to find relevant keywords, analyze how often specific terms are searched, and budget around bid estimates. If this doesn’t work for you, there are highly advanced, paid keyword research tools that you can invest in.
2. Narrow Down Your Choices
By now, you probably have plenty of keywords to choose from. But how do you choose the best ones? You’ll want a good balance between high search volume, low competition, buying intent, and relevance to your products.
Keyword research tools will help you analyze individual keywords’ search volume and competition. However, it’s up to you to decide if your chosen keywords fit into the product category and match your target audience’s needs. Remember, you’re trying to solve your customer’s problems: solutions sell.
3. Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are where searches get really specific. These keywords are special because they’re hyper-focused and less competitive, meaning your page is more likely to end up on the first result page. They’re also less expensive because they have a lower search volume.
Coming back to our coffee store example, “best at-home Columbian coffee” is a much more specific search term than “best at-home coffee” or just “best coffee,” and your page is much more likely to show up at the top of the results once you target a very niche search term. Again, an easy way to find these long-tail keywords is to look at the recommended search terms in Google.
Improve Your Website
One of the most critical ways to appeal to customers (and Google’s ranking algorithm) is to make your website attractive and user-friendly.
4. Make Your Website Easy To Navigate
Who wants to buy from an online store that looks janky and scammy? You want your ecommerce website to look clean and trustworthy. You want your products to be easy to find anywhere on the website.
Structure all your products into organized categories, arranged into a bar at the top of your site. Ensure that your homepage shows off the best of your site, including new deals and classic bestsellers. If your customers are looking for something specific, be sure that it’s easy for them to find it.
5. Optimize For Mobile Devices
Your ecommerce site should be a great experience on both desktop and mobile. Review your website on mobile before publishing anything new to ensure it matches the quality of your desktop pages. Google will consider the mobile version of your site, so be careful to keep content the same across both platforms.
6. Clean Up Broken Links
If a potential customer is browsing your website and stumbles upon a broken link, it throws off their whole shopping process and runs the risk of them not finding what they were looking for. They might even leave your website. That’s why you want to keep an eye out for any broken links and fix them as soon as possible. Many SEO tools have features that find broken links for you.
7. Increase Page Load Speed
Customers get impatient if a page takes longer than two seconds to load. Just like with broken links, long wait times will encourage customers to click away. Here are a few ways to speed up your page load times:
- Optimize Images
- Compress files
- Use fewer images, videos, and ads
- Add lazy loading
- Reduce page clutter
- Limit CSS, JavaScript, and HTTP requests
Give Your Customers Quality Content
The final step in ecommerce SEO is to give your customers quality content. Google pays attention to the quality and usefulness of web pages, so ensuring your stuff is valuable to the customers is essential.
8. Helpful Product Pages
When a customer is checking out your product, you want to be sure that your webpage makes your product look like the best thing ever. Show off high-quality images and footage of each product on each product page. Include pictures for each product size, color, and variant so that customers know and trust their options. To promote credibility, write detailed descriptions of product materials, uses, and benefits. Finally, utilize a rating and review system so that other happy customers can sell your product for you.
9. Blogs and Other Content
We all know by now that blogs are a great way to attract attention to your website, and it’s no different for an ecommerce site. Try setting up a blog with topics related to your products. If you write quality content about how to use your type of products or about a new trend in the industry, you can easily work your offerings into the content and appeal to the exact audience you want to sell to.
Whatever blog topics you choose, include your previously researched keywords in the titles and body copy so that customers can find you. You can even explore video or other content to attract a broader audience.
Here at Little Red Writing, we know that ecommerce SEO can be challenging. That’s why we’re here to help you navigate the complicated world of SEO so your ecommerce business can thrive. As a bonus, we specialize in content marketing, so starting a blog for your online store is only a few steps away. Reach out to us to see how we can help your business grow today.
