COVID-19 containment measures, such as stay-at-home orders, have led to a rapid increase in online shopping. As an entrepreneur or a digital marketer, it’s crucial to ensure that your website appears high in the results when potential shoppers search for anything related to your products or services. Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a critical role in increasing an eCommerce business’s visibility on the search engine results pages (SERPs) and driving traffic and sales.
An SEO for eCommerce strategy usually involves optimizing various features, including:
- Internal link structure
- Product descriptions
- Headlines
- User experience
- Navigation structure
Wondering how you can improve your eCommerce site ranking, brand impressions, sales, and clicks? Below are five tips and tricks on how to be successful with SEO for eCommerce.
Create an SEO-Friendly Website Structure
Contents
Website structure refers to the connection between different web pages. Since your site’s structure influences your SERP rankings, it should be strong, organized, and effective for easy navigation.
The primary starting point of a website’s structure should be the home page, which is then split into other pages such as the about page, blog, product page, and contact page.
Website structure can be optimized in various ways, including:
- Creating the site hierarchy: This involves content organization and presentation by arranging pages in a top-to-bottom strategy. Creating a hierarchy requires prioritizing some pages. For instance, the products page may rank higher than the blogs page since the former provides information related to the consumers’ search.
- Using simple, readable URLs: URL structure can influence search rankings and drive traffic by integrating recognizable words. For instance, internet users are likely to click on URLs in search results that include key terms related to the products they’re shopping for.
- Use “breadcrumbs” navigation: This creates an ordered trail of pages (as shown in the image below) that shows users where they are without checking the URL.
Establish a Keyword Plan
Quality search results are achieved through keywords, which relate to the user’s queries. For an eCommerce site to appear on Google’s results page, its keywords must be closely related to the user’s intent.
There are four keyword categories:
- Commercial keywords: These are keywords associated with the intent to purchase a product or service. For example, “leather jacket prices” may indicate the user intends to buy this specific product.
- Navigational keywords: These are keywords used to search for a specific brand or company. Users already know the business they intend to buy from and are searching for the right eCommerce website.
- Transactional keywords: These include search queries used to find a specific product that a customer intends to buy. They may include terms such as “coupon,” “discount,” “buy,” or “purchase.”
- Informational keywords: These are keywords used to search for information to make purchasing decisions. With the growth of eCommerce, customers use reviews and details to compare competing products before buying.
Create Relevant Content That Correlates with Users’ Queries
As a digital marketer or entrepreneur, you should always create content from the user’s perspective. When brainstorming ideas, consider the goals, needs, and desires of potential consumers. This effort ensures that the content published is valuable and relevant, increasing the probability of higher rankings in SERPs.
It’s best to focus on content quality over quantity and providing clear conclusions. Remember that you’re writing for people and not search algorithms.
Use Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
In recent years, cyber theft has become a challenge in eCommerce. Potential customers fear that their personal and financial information may be insecure or accessible to hackers and other online criminals. As a result, many people use eCommerce websites as information sources on prices and quality instead of carrying out actual purchases.
Using an HTTPS protocol can eliminate these fears since it is more secure and advanced. Under HTTPS protocols, data exchange between the store’s server and the user’s browser is encrypted. Thus, it can build consumers’ trust in online transactions, leading to increased sales.
Routine Maintenance to Fix Broken Links
Broken links can trigger a 404 error when visitors attempt to access certain content on your website. While this may result in a negative user experience, it can also affect SEO. For instance, when an internet user enters a search query, Google bots visit and collect data on each web page for results rankings. In the case of a broken link, the crawl error will undermine your SEO efforts.
Ready, Set, SEO!
Combine the tips and tactics above to build brand awareness and reach new customers. For more information on eCommerce SEO, be sure to reach out to a team of experts who can guide you through the process!
