When you know that 69% of global customers start their online shopping journey from Search engines, it’s a no-brainer that SEO is unavoidable. With more businesses joining this bandwagon, staying ahead of your competition on the web is key. How do you achieve that?

Using a well-crafted SEO strategy suited to your needs. From infusing the right Keywords and satisfying search intent to a robust backlinking strategy, SEO in Ecommerce is an intricate amalgamation of multiple ingredients.

When you nail your SEO strategy, your website traffic rises organically without burning your bucks in paid marketing. If you’re new to SEO for eCommerce,  this beginner’s guide will answer all your queries.

Let’s dive right in!

Can SEO in eCommerce boost online visibility?

Now that we know SEO for eCommerce is integral, let’s define this term before we move ahead. What exactly is eCommerce Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

In beginner-friendly terms, it is any process to increase your online store’s visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). Do it right, and you gain both in quantity and quality. This implies that SEO helps bring in more of a crowd likely to purchase your products or services.

In the upcoming sections, we’ll address the perfect recipe for SEO in eCommerce. However, it helps to break some major myths on this topic.

Here are 4 such themes that you must be aware of as an eCommerce business owner:

1. You don’t need to stuff your eCommerce website with keywords.
2. Emotionally connecting content is vital, along with SEO.
3. Ease of navigation (Website structure) decides whether they will stay.
4. Link-building exercise contributes to improved traffic.

Ingredients for effective eCommerce SEO strategy

Want to rank higher and bring more shoppers to buy exactly what you offer? Then, following a solid and systematic SEO process for eCommerce is a must. Let’s address the primary steps involved.

On-Page SEO

Your on-page SEO strategy helps Google understand what your page is all about. The process is about placing the right keywords at the right places. It’s imperative to select keywords that have good search volumes and conversion rates. But how do you determine the suitable keywords?

Keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner and Amazon Keyword tool are some nifty options for SEO in eCommerce. They provide a list of keywords aligned to your target audience’s searching behavior.

Additionally, competitor research is another unavoidable step. Rather than blindly copying the keywords they’ve used in their product pages, consider factors like domain authority while you zero in on the relevant keywords.

Finally, implementing a site map, well-defined metadata on each page, title tags, alt tags, and meta descriptions helps you nail the on-page SEO part.

Page Speed Optimization

Studies suggest that 51% of online shoppers in the US fail to complete a purchase if the site loads slowly. In short, if your eCommerce site loads take over a few seconds, you are in trouble, my friend! How to avert this, you ask? Here are two fundamentals you need to take care of:

Image Optimization

Most browsers are programmed to load your website images before the textual content via HTML/CSS. Ensure that you compress your images so that they load in a jiffy.

Caching

If you’re not tech-savvy, the caching concept means storing frequently accessed data in memory for fast output. Leverage cache plug-ins so your website data loads from that memory instead of loading from scratch each time the user searches your page.

And a pro tip for you: Use Google’s Page Speed Insight tool to gain insights on how to boost your website speed.

Link Building

When other credible websites and sources link to your online store, it does your eCommerce SEO marketing a world of good. These links act as green signals for search engines like Google, persuading them to rank your website higher.

Don’t hesitate to try guest posting to build quality links. Finding sites related to your niche open to guest posts is an excellent link-building idea.

However, keep in mind that the quality of links matters over quantity.

Content Quality

Irrespective of the size of your eCommerce business, the Google Panda algorithm penalizes pages with under 300 words. Instead of publishing a bunch of random blogs and ads on your website, include crisp product descriptions, reviews, and user guides that’ll make your customers’ lives simpler. FYI, Google craves relevant content supported by images and videos.

Never forget to remove any duplicate content on your pages. Once Google detects duplicates, the ranking will head south.

Product Page Tips

Let’s wrap this section with more tips to boost your SEO score on your eCommerce product pages.

• Gain the competitive edge by infusing your primary keyword in the website’s URL.
• Include a short 200-300 word product intro with 3-4 keywords.
• Ensure that you begin the page title with a keyword.
• Google can’t read images. Adding Alt text to them makes the algorithm realize what the image speaks about.
• Adding the primary keyword in the meta description improves Click Through Rate (CTR). Google bolds your result when it contains the keyword.

How to measure and refine your SEO strategy?

44% of online shoppers perform Google searches before their purchase. Keeping track of your SEO efforts and their outcome is crucial to stay in the game.

Why use SEO tools for growing your eCommerce store?

The reasons are plenty, including:

• Measuring your website loading speeds
• Keyword research
• Staying on track with competitors
• Refining content strategy

Ranking high on SERPs never happens with guesswork. That’s why let’s introduce you to these 3 highly relevant SEO optimization tools that are bringing in traffic and sales.

Google Search Console

This is one of the best free tools out there for SEO in eCommerce. It offers the queries and keywords that help your store rank higher, along with search frequencies. The plethora of free courses and documentation available for GSC makes it supremely easy for beginners.

SERanking

From performance tracking to competitor analysis, this SEO tool gives you multiple reasons to use it. Gain customized insights on:

• Content gaps in your page that grant the edge to your competition
• Parameters to improve your website performance
• Keyword suggestions to improve rankings

You can also leverage their content editor to create blog posts on your eCommerce website. Although it is a paid tool, we highly recommend you try this out for yourself!

Verbolia

Creating category pages that satisfy search intent just got super-easy! Publish as many categories in your store as you want and avoid the tedious manual efforts behind it.

Verbolia helps you achieve this using 2 simple steps:

1. Add your product feed
2. Key in your selected keywords

Voila! Your eCommerce category pages are now ready. Target long-tail keywords using this SEO tool that’ll help boost your store visibility.

The way forward: Trends in eCommerce SEO

There’s no denying that meticulously executed SEO in eCommerce can give your website a big visibility boost. But is that all there is to convert traffic into sales? In 2024, you need to create an emotional connection with the audience for them to choose you over others.

Let’s glance at 3 such trends that’ll cement your brand in your audience’s minds.

#1: Growing presence of AI

With a rising number of tools designed for keyword research, web analytics, and buyer behavior, it’s crunch time for AI in eCommerce. Companies using AI for SEO are found to outperform the competition by 50%, as per recent studies. Using Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics, AI can help you understand search engine algorithms and help you ace the ranking game!

#2: Voice Search

In 2024, more and more customers will use voice to search for products in eCommerce stores. Alexa and Google Assistant have become a part of life for a large chunk of online shoppers. By optimizing your voice search for conversational long-tail keywords, you can improve user experience and rank higher on SERP. With almost 80% of searches predicted to be conversational, leveraging natural language processing to boost voice search outcomes is unavoidable.

#3: Mobile-first Indexing

Popular search engines like Google prioritize the mobile version of your website content over the desktop one. The reason is pretty obvious, isn’t it?

To charm the search engines, here’s what your SEO in eCommerce efforts need to focus on:

• Mobile responsiveness
• Speed to load on mobile devices
• Make the content crisp and skimmable for easy mobile consumption.

Concluding Thoughts

The path to more brand visibility is aplenty – social media, paid ads, newsletters, and many more. But SEO in eCommerce, when done with the proper strategy, is most reliable and effective.

By leveraging the proven best eCommerce SEO practices given in this article, you can witness a healthy rise in quality traffic and sales in a quick time. However, if you’re a small to medium-sized company, then grasping the nuances of eCommerce SEO marketing may seem overwhelming at the start. That’s where we come in!

QeRetail is your go-to eCommerce agency with proven prowess in fast-tracking your SEO efforts via a bespoke approach suited to your business at affordable prices.

Why let the competitors eat your share of the pie? Stamp your eCommerce brand authority with QeRetail. Contact us today!

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