ECommerce SEO is a key issue that should be taken into account when thinking about long-term sales. What actions should be taken to increase the visibility of a website in search results? What is an SEO audit and when should you opt for it? How important is proper website optimization? Here is a short tutorial in which I explain what SEO actually is and what actions should be taken to optimize the website, both in terms of the search engine, as well as adapt it to the user’s needs.
SEO, or optimization or positioning, is an interdisciplinary field, covering issues from the border of IT and marketing. As specialists in this field emphasize, SEO is a series of activities aimed at improving the visibility of the website. It is worth being aware that SEO is not only about the page design optimization, but also influencing all the ranking factors.
SEO audit – the first step in positioning your online store
The first step in positioning an online store is to optimize your website according to all the accepted standards. An extremely important element that should precede website optimization is an SEO audit. The audit itself will not increase the visibility in organic search results, but it will show the way in which SEO optimization should be performed.
What is an SEO audit?
An SEO audit is a detailed website analysis. From the audit you will learn which elements have been implemented correctly and which of them need improvement. Most of this document is descriptive, which allows people who do not have daily contact with technical language to understand the problems. In the audit, you will find detailed descriptions of the elements of your website that have not been properly optimized and suggestions as to what needs changing As I mentioned, an SEO audit is a detailed analysis, the creation of which requires knowledge in the field of SEO and the ability to use tools such as: Senuto, Google Search Console, Google Analytics or Ahrefs. On the basis of the audit, the client obtains knowledge about individual SEO elements on his website, which allows him to optimize on his own and better cooperate with specialists in the future.
An SEO audit is a set of technical tips and elements that are important from an SEO point of view. So you will find information on the types of headers; internal and external duplications; website speed; and, if necessary, a proposal for a new category tree, properly optimized for SEO. The specialist who creates the document checks for errors on the website, what is the speed of its operation, and in the event of a defect or problem, prepares solutions to eliminate them and gradually improve the visibility of the website in the search results. If there are several options to fix the problem – the audit will include all the suggestions.
You can find free SEO audits on the Internet that can be performed in a few minutes. Their results, however, are very vague. It is worth being aware that free website analysis is performed by scripts, which can often confuse or misinterpret information, which can lead to misunderstandings. A free analysis is one page, while a document prepared by a specialist is several dozen pages of a detailed study. We will find here detailed analyses, outlining possible problems and suggestions for their solutions.
SEO optimization
SEO audit and subsequent SEO optimization of the website are the first steps that should be taken to start eCommerce SEO. What is worth being aware of is that without a well-conducted website analysis, your website may have a relatively small chance of appearing in organic results. In industries with little competition, the mere optimization of the website can significantly improve its position.
SEO optimization is a series of activities aimed at adjusting the elements of the website – both its technical aspects and the content itself to generally accepted standards.
Optimization on the website is subject to:
– tags
– URL addresses
– texts
– multimedia (graphics, audio, video)
– plugs
– website structure
– website code
– charging time
– internal linking
Content for eCommerce SEO
During the audit, the SEO specialist prepares recommendations regarding the texts that should appear on the website. If the website already has descriptions, it is important to optimize them properly. It is not recommended to supplement the finished texts with keywords. They will not look natural to the user. Although such action may improve the visibility of the website, it certainly will not translate into conversion rates.
Have you ever been interested in a product description to such an extent that you have made a purchase? There’s nothing unusual about that. Research shows that for as many as 87% of people, product descriptions are important when making purchase choices.Therefore, it is worth focusing on creating a good quality and unique content for the website, which will contain appropriate phrases and keywords. Creating memorable and unique descriptions requires a dose of creativity and a fresh perspective.
How does the right content translate into the eCommerce SEO?
The Google search engine determines the ranking based on an algorithm, which is run by indexing robots. In the process of indexing, the robots scour the contents of all the pages.The collected data allows you to specify which key phrases, specific URLs should be displayed for. This determines their position in the search engine. For this reason, it is so important to create valuable, SEO compliant texts that directly affect the positioning of the store on Google.
In order for the content to be created in the spirit of a friendly SEO, it should be:
Full of key phrases – remember, however, that the text should be natural – if the use of the phrase in a given place will generate an impression of artificiality, be sure that the potential customer won’t notice that the text was created solely for the purpose of “satisfying” the algorithm
valuable for recipients – when creating or commissioning texts, remember that they should be a piece of content that you would like to read yourself. In creating content, the key should not be to artificially praise the product or services and to interweave phrases with adjectives emphasizing the advantages of the product, and a reliable and comprehensive presentation of information about the goods offered – a comprehensive description will not only be more attractive for the algorithm, but also for the recipient, which will significantly translate into a decreased time of taking purchasing decisions.
unique – and fully adapted to the content of the subpage. Rich content plays a huge role in the era of constantly growing customer purchasing awareness. Stop duplicating content for the same types of products, if you care about the high position of the store, which translates into an increase in conversion, spend a sufficient amount of time creating content. Always follow the rule that the text you present to your audience should interest you as a potential customer
detailed – exhaustive descriptions are not only the possibility of including more key phrases in the text, but also increasing the probability that we will respond to the deep needs of potential customers who will not have to look for alternative offers, deciding to use ours. Why? As I mentioned before, nowadays customers are distinguished by high purchasing awareness, which translates into their needs and expectations. Currently. buyers want to know more than just the parameters of a given product, but also to find out how it works and what they will gain by buying it. A comprehensive description will satisfy the consumer’s curiosity, which will reduce the return on goods rate.
Returning to the issue of phrases, the most frequently used rule when positioning an online store is the saturation of the text with keywords in the proportion of 1 – 2 repetitions of a given word per 1000 characters. Just as popular is the technique of creating texts in such a way that key phrases constitute no more than 8% of the entire description or article. Also, do not forget about the headings – remember that online readers usually read the text as a whole at the beginning, i.e. before they start absorbing the content, they look at the whole text to see if it contains the most important information for them. In this case, the headlines are invaluable.
The visual effect is also worth mentioning – the use of H2 headings (and then H3, H4 etc. if necessary) avoids an overwhelming wall of text that can discourage reading. By ensuring the transparency of the prepared descriptions or blog content, you will have a better chance of retaining a potential customer.The key principle, however, should be the aforementioned rule that the text should be natural and pleasant to read.
Link Building – internal linking, external linking
Another important issue that strengthens the positioning of an online store is link building. This is nothing more thank using links to the page. Link building is a positioning strategy aimed at linking specific websites together. These activities are aimed at showing Google bots that the positioned page deserves attention and is valuable. The right links are a ranking factor that significantly influences the position of the website in the search results.
We divide links into internal and externalone. Internal linking are all the activities on the website that are designed to make it easier for the user and bots to navigate the website. External linking is the placement of links to our website on external sites. The most popular sources of external links are blogs, directories, social media, and online forums.
Link building should be created in a thoughtful way. Effective links are the ones that look natural to Google bots. Linking is not an easy process – not all links are equally important. The implementation of the link building strategy should be carried out by specialists who, based on their many years of experience, will be able to
take appropriate action.
eCommerce SEO – effects
Customers’ expectations while ordering this type of activities are a common problem for e-commerce agencies or people dealing with positioning. Of course, it is natural that every e-shop owner dreams of seeing spectacular effects immediately. In the case of positioning, however, it is unrealistic. Of course, the waiting time for results is strictly dependent on the specifics of a specific domain, the current demand for the assortment offered by the store, or the popularity of specific services, competition in a given industry is also of great importance. However, there are certain issues that cannot be skipped over. Usually you should wait at least 3-6 months for the first effects. The initial condition of the website being positioned is also of great importance here – if we start with positioning from scratch, no subpage has been properly optimized, it is necessary to implement many complex activities in the field of SEO. This, in turn, is associated not only with time but also with costs. Therefore, if you undertake work on the positioning of your store, you must take into account the fact that apart from auditing, valuable content, or issues related to link building, it will require a lot of patience
eCommerce SEO – what to remember?
When deciding to position your store yourself, you should remember about a few important issues, which I write about below:
Using specialized tools
It will translate into the efficiency of your work. A typical must have in this regard should be: Google Analytics and Search Console (allowing to measure visibility, traffic and conversion), Ahrefs (necessary for link analysis), Senuto (allowing to search key phrases and monitor their position), Surfer SEO (ideal for creating content and searching for phrases), Screaming Frog (a crawler that allows you to analyze the structure of a website)
Avoiding unethical practices
So the so-called Black Hat SEO, which consists of obtaining links from spammy sites, frequent placement of key phrases in texts, hiding text on the page, or masking the content of the page
Monitoring the activities of the competition
As previously mentioned, the competition affects in a significant way the positioning. Monitoring and interpreting the activities of other stores with a similar assortment will allow you to see their weaknesses and mistakes (also in terms of SEO) they make, thus creating an offer that will stand out from others
Keeping up to date with the latest algorithms
Stay up to date with the changes to the the search engine algorithms – remember that the search system is updated regularly. Algorithm changes can have a huge impact on the visibility of your website
SEO as an added value
Put the needs of the recipients first, and in return the session time on the website will be extended, and the bounce rate will also be reduced. Optimization, linking, substantive, exhaustive content will be appreciated not only by the Google search engine, but also by potential customers.
Summary
eCommerce SEO today is a practical necessity, not an additional option. Without the right strategy and appropriate positioning activities, it is not possible to achieve high results in the search engine, and thus – gain traffic on the website.
eCommerce Manager at Paul Rich – multimillion jewellery premium watch brand. Shopify & Shopify PLUS consultant, blogger and ex-founder of napnell.pl
