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Welcome note!
When it comes to SEO for e commerce, you should start with research and end with execution. Oh sorry, SEO is a continuous process of development and it does not end, but only matures with time. That however does not mean you should continuously invest in SEO. Depending on your need, priority and budget, you can adjust SEO continuity. But to start all of that, you should at least have a very solid idea about how to SEO an e commerce website. To help you on that, we tried to cover the key essentials here. Read on!
E commerce SEO – Definition
E commerce SEO is the process that helps your product-based website rank higher on Google and other search engines so when someone searches for a product you sell, you want to rank as higher as possible to drive more sales.
Why SEO needs to be your top priority for ecommerce sales
• Ecommerce- the term stands for what it means. It facilitates selling of products and goods online. Therefore, the source of customer engagement is online. Now when it is all about online sales, making sure you create a competitive edge online is extremely crucial. No online traffic means no sales and risk being forgotten. Here is where SEO helps you get found and make a long-standing opportunity for growth.
• Search - Direct, search, social, referral, and paid. These are a few ways traffic comes to your e com website. Among these, search holds a very strategically important position. People usually prefer to go for Google search to find a relevant product they want to buy online. They seek for tips, information, pricing charts, comparisons etc before making an informed decision. The market is so competitive that without SEO, ranking for a highly searched product online is very hard.
• Risk of losing out - SEO helps you target specialized customers, in groups and segments, at places they frequent and in ways that are strategic. If you are not leveraging on it, you risk being lost in the sea of information.
• Competition - This is a very simple analogy. If your competitors are using it and gathering values from it, why should you simply watch and think about implementing it one day. Instead, you should act NOW
• Relevancy - SEO drives targeted and very relevant customers to your website. They have a pre-built mindset, and know what they want, so when they find your website can address their needs, they come prepared to buy. So, there's a greater opportunity to convert a visitor into customer.
• Branding - Making a purchase does not end your customer footprint on your website. In fact, it begins. A happy customer leaves positive experience while a dissatisfied customer leaves no stones unturned to put you down and create a negative impression about your brand. SEO helps in creating loyal, sustained brand reputation, suggest ways to counter the bad PR and create useful referrals that can help you build a positive brand engagement.
• Navigation - Setting up an e commerce website and driving tons of visitors is good, but what if they don't convert. Quite often sites fail to encourage sales, despite being ranked on Google. One of the core reasons for the development is the cluttered navigation and broken links. And if that continues to grow, Google eventually downgrades your ranking. SEO helps you develop a clear consistent and contextual navigation across all product and other pages; thereby reducing bounce rates and increasing more on-page time and purchasing history.
Other than these, SEO for e commerce sites facilitates seamless customer experience, speed up your process, make you globally accessible, and serves as an cost effective alternative to traditional marketing practices.
The importance of understanding your industry & competitor
Before you start with your own website, invest some time understanding your industry and competitor. It helps you gather ideas about what is working in the market, learn your competitor's present and future plans, and focus on the ways your competitors are focusing. You should also understand who your target audience is. Gather demographic and psychographic details. Create a list of competitors; outline your buyer's journey across all stages of their engagement.
Divide your proposed activities into three segments
When it comes to SEO your e commerce website, you need to focus on product pages, Home Page, internal landing pages besides others.
Analyzing keywords
Use tools to search for keywords you want to rank for. You can use Google keyword planner, and Alexa Difficulty Tools to gather useful keyword ideas. You can also visit your competitor websites to pinpoint the keywords they are using. Also Google search is a wonderful source to pinpoint new keyword ideas. A search on Mobile phone returned with the below-mentioned results at the end of the search page.
So, you can use the tools, competitor analysis and other ways such as Google suggested keywords in search results to gather top keyword ideas initially. There are many other ways to gather more keyword ideas - and we will talk about this in another upcoming blog. But these three sources should give you a solid idea about who is searching what.
Once the keyword research is over, you can narrow down the list and make it more comprehensive based on search volume, Product relevancy, commercial intent, competition.
Keyword Placement
Place keywords evenly across your website product pages - in title tags, URL handle, and meta description. It is recommended you assign at least one primary keyword to each page. On the top of that, try to add at least 3 to 4 LSI keywords on each page. LSI is short for Latent Semantic Index. LSI keywords refer to search terms that are closely related to your primary keywords.Content
We will begin with homepage content. Try to populate the page with most relevant information without overdoing anything. Include the primary keywords and LSI as mentioned. Ignore cluttered navigation, and focus on usability.
When it comes to creating SEO content for product pages both on the homepage and internal pages (we will talk about product pages later), use actionable term, clear CTAs, and always provide original, focused and clearly messaged content. It is good to be descriptive but making a long-form internal page only to appease search engine won't do any good. Focus on solving problems your users face, show how user friendly your website is. Make their stay fruitful and seamless.
When it comes to writing product pages, create full product description, add keywords across the description evenly, use keyword friendly URLs, sell the message showing benefits, try to use visual and video content - such as client testimonial. Keep navigation to other pages simple with keyword-oriented copy, and assign reviews to your products.
The genuine review - with possibly genuine credentials of customers - helps more.
• To offer rich results on SERPs, you can add Schema Markup to your website pages.
• Create faster loading page
• Link to internal pages
• Crate blogs - Add new blogs every week and for that create an editorial calendar
• Simplify site architecture
• Add FAQ page - Adding FAQ page adds to buyer's trust and they know exactly what to expect and not expect before they make a purchase
Responsive design and app store optimization
A good number of people usually turn to hand-held devices to visit an e commerce website. Invest in app store optimization to ensure people when searching for your app, easily find it. From icon, to description, to image, review and screenshot - make a consistent brand presence.
Build authority with an actively engaged social media presence and linking
Find links your websites are linking to and explore ways if you can link to in high PR websites, set up social media profiles for your e commerce websites. Regularly post updates and respond to users in real-time. Set up directory listings, and promote your blog content across the web.
Building back links is crucial for e commerce SEO. You can identify promising sites that accept guest post and offer to write content for them with a link back to your website.
Conclusion
Understand your audience and competitors. Build optimized pages with targeted keywords, create a consistent branding with content both on-page and off-page and actively seek constructive ways to build valuable back links. We hope you found this E commerce SEO guide helpful. For any questions, please comment here.
"Keep focus on creating seamless use experience across all pages of your website with useful content for effective SEO outcomes," says Raj Kamal, CEO OMSOFTWARE
For enterprise mobile apps, websites and SEO services (that drives profit), you can contact OMSOFTWARE here
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