Generating traffic on your e-commerce website that’s as congested as New York’s Broadway during rush hour isn’t a matter of luck or marketing. It actually results from a carefully structured and executed search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Having a well-established SEO strategy in place makes all the difference in modern business, as it allows your company to establish an online presence and benefit immensely from increased traffic since more traffic means more conversions, and more conversions mean more revenue.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the important aspects of e-commerce SEO, how SEO affects your traffic, and what are some actionable tips you can employ to get more traffic to your e-commerce site.
What Is SEO for E-Commerce?
SEO refers to improving your online store’s website to increase its position in search engine results pages (SERP). In other words, it’s a set of practices that aims to position your website better in targeted Google Search.
It’s important to consider that 60% of all internet traffic comes from search engines, such as Google Search, and that nearly 60% of all shoppers use Google to research in-store or online purchases. Approximately 54% of all organic traffic usually goes to the first three pages on SERPs, while those that rank on the second page of Google typically receive less than 5% of all traffic.
On the other hand, boosting your SERP ranking by employing a structured SEO strategy can significantly increase your position in SERPs and boost your organic traffic, increasing your conversion rates.
Why Does SEO Matter for E-Commerce?
Gaining new customers can be hard, especially if you’re starting up. You have to establish your store as a go-to place for online shoppers, but that can be very hard if you’re not being found by search engines such as Google and Bing.
By employing a good e-commerce SEO strategy, you’re establishing your business as a trustworthy and thematically relevant authority within your specific industry/niche. Search engines will then, in their attempt to provide the most accurate and thematically relevant data for the best user experience, refer searchers to your web page, as it’s the most thematically relevant to their specific inquiry.
SEO can increase your organic traffic and conversion rate, making it one of the greatest investments you can make, and the best part about it is that it provides value over time.
E-Commerce SEO Best Practices
Now that we’ve covered why SEO is important for running your e-commerce business, let's cover some of the best SEO practices for your online e-commerce store.
Keyword Research
Content marketing refers to creating quality content based on the target keyword ideas, or search terms. It’s part of your on-page SEO, or local SEO, efforts that establish your thematic relevance and increase your SERP ranking. Keyword research, in the context of content marketing, is often conducted when creating content for your e-commerce blog or product description, which subsequently leads to the product page on the e-commerce platform through internal links.
Along with other aspects of SEO, keywords are among the greatest drivers of SEO to increase your ranking in organic search. However, there’s more to SEO than just long-tail keywords and meta descriptions. You also need a structured content creation strategy that involves creating new, updating the old, and removing duplicate content.
Keyword research is a topic in its own right, and you have to be somewhat proficient in SEO tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and other keyword research tools to properly conduct research, but it pays off tremendously.
Site Architecture
Site architecture or site structure is also one of the ranking factors when it comes to SERPs, and it’s really important for e-commerce businesses since such businesses tend to have thousands, if not millions, of product pages. Having a good architecture allows your target audience to navigate through product category pages and product pages easily, and it also allows Google to index your website more easily.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to actions and processes that optimize your website for faster site speed and shorter page loading times, as well as mobile responsiveness. In this modern age of instant everything, people dislike slow load times, and failing to optimize your technical SEO will drive your potential customers to your competitors with faster page speeds.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to that part of your SEO campaign that’s implemented outside your own website or e-commerce site but still affects your SERP rankings by increasing thematic relevance and authority. Off-page SEO mostly relies on link building and backlinks from other thematically relevant and reputable websites or social media but also on removing or replacing broken links.
SEO for E-commerce Quick Tips
Here are some tips and tricks on improving your SEO for E-commerce:
Improve your meta description: Meta description is a brief summary that appears below the URL in SERPs, and even Amazon tends to neglect these. Make sure that your meta description is concise and relevant and that it contains the right keywords.
301 out-of-date products: Instead of deleting pages for products that are no longer available, use a 301 redirect to send visitors to a related product or category page.
Improve category page: Category pages are a must for e-commerce SEO. They should contain unique, high-quality content with relevant keywords and should be organized in a way that ensures the best user experience and easier indexing.
Improve your title tag: The title tag appears at the top of the browser window and as a clickable page title in search results. Ensure that it’s descriptive and that it contains specific keywords.
Add live chat: Offering live chat on your homepage can improve the user experience by providing instant support to potential customers, which reduces bounce rates and positively affects your SEO.
Add product recommendations: You can increase the average order value by suggesting similar or complementary products and also improve engagement on your website.
Summary
In the end, it’s important to note that SEO is a long-running game, but when done currently, it will keep on giving. Orchard Marketing provides the best digital marketing solutions and strategies for its customers, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business that drive sales and growth. If you want to learn more about how SEO might help your e-commerce marketing, contact Orchard Marketing.
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