E-Commerce Search Engine Optimization is currently a hot topic in digital marketing, as more and more companies are looking for growth in e-commerce due to the increased digital demand. Search engine optimization for e-commerce mainly refers to making technical and content changes that are intended to affect organic visibility in search engines. The goal is to improve a site’s search engine visibility and increase the amount of organic traffic. At the same time, search engine optimization measures improve the user experience of your site, which is almost always very proportional to the number of conversions.
In this blog, I will bring up ten tips for you on how to increase sales in your online store. Some of the things you can do without much technical knowledge, while some are worth asking for professional help.
Optimize Category Pages
Search engine optimization for category pages is one of the most important elements in search engine optimization for ecommerce. For example, if you ask a person on the street what they would type in a search engine if they had to buy a new TV, then they would probably start typing “LG tv” or “55-inch TV” instead of “LG CX 65 4k Smart”. Therefore, category optimization is especially important, as they often have more searches than the product models themselves.
When doing category search engine optimization, consider at least the following:
- In addition to the keyword, it is a good idea to use some differentiation factor in the title tag that sets your online store apart from others. This can be, for example, “100% domestic” or “Free shipping”. Be sure to write your business name at the end of the title tag and note that a good length for the title tag is 60 characters.
- Content is an essential part of optimizing category pages, but don’t you write content just to make your keywords more visible? The content should genuinely serve the customer and facilitate his purchase decision. If there is a lot of content, it is worth placing part of it at the end of the category, so that, for example, a TV seeker does not have to scroll through 500 words of text before he can watch the products themselves. Please also note that the font must be large enough to make your content easy to read behind each screen.
Optimize product pages.
When companies struggle hard for the visibility of their category pages, the competition in search engine optimization of product pages may not be as fierce. Often applicants also have so-called shopping pants on foot, so please note in substance that the customer may already know what he wants. Get the tips below when you start optimizing your product pages:
- Title tag should of course well include the product is all about, but since almost all are doing this, and several online stores will automatically pick up the product name in the title tag, so if the title tag will still be space, then here too should take advantage of the company’s value proposition, or any other differentiating factor. For example, “Cloud two-seater sofa – made of domestic wood – Sofa.”
- Content is typically not optimized and especially when you sell the same product that many others sell. Do not just settle for copying product information like maybe most of your competitors do. The features of the products are, of course, what they are, but the content seeks to tell you things that might be of interest to the visitor. You can also take advantage of the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on the product pages to help you effectively remove barriers to your purchase. It is good to remember that the more unique the text, the better.
The giant rises first, and its title tag receives keywords faster than other title tags. Searches show reviews from structured data. Hintaopas.fi has also succeeded in making the price range visible. The price guide is also the only one that has specifically set meta descriptions for the product.
Commercial meta descriptions
Meta descriptions do not directly affect search engine visibility, but when done well, they will increase the clickthrough rate (CTR) of search results in your ecommerce conversions, and through that, your search engine visibility will also increase.
Meta descriptions are like a sales talk about the content of your pages. Summarize what the page contains, use the main keyword in the description and Include a call to action at the end. Google displays the first 155 characters of the meta description, so your sales speech should be concise.
Create internal links that serve the user.
A good rule of thumb is that every content should be found within three clicks of the front page. A good and clear Menu structure handles this, but internal linking can be improved in many other ways. Make sure that the content in your categories includes links to other categories and products.
It is a good idea to make use of blogs here as well, i.e., when writing a blog about a certain product, category or even a new phenomenon of how Korona has affected the sofa trade, remember to link to these products directly to products and categories as well. When there are plenty of internal links, and they really help the user navigate towards the desired products, then the search engines are likely to like it too.
Try not to make a separate URL for each color or size option, as many “extra” urls will make your site heavier for Google crawlers while eating up their crawler budget. This often also causes problematic double content, because if, for example, three different urls are made from three of the same products according to color options, then the titles of all the products start with the same important keywords as “Nike sneakers…”. Products should be added as variations so that product variations are under the same product page.
Use canonical tags when you want to show search engines what pages they should primarily go through. This does not prevent them from visiting other pages as well, but this will help in indexing important pages favorably. If your site contains pages that you want to block completely from crawlers, then add them to your robots.txt file.
Use Structured Data (structured data)
The use of structured data in online shopping is more the norm than the exception today. It helps search engines better understand what your site is selling for and thus it also gives richer search hits to search engines. Collect reviews and make sure they appear below the meta description, for example, as stars and the number of reviews.
Structured information is now increasingly being used in the Frequently Asked Questions sections. When you add structured data to them, search engines may bring your question and answer directly to the search results. We have found that these so-called “Rich snippets” have an incredibly positive effect on clickthrough rate.
Create keyword-friendly URLs.
Make sure your ecommerce URLs are simple and understandable to both people and search engines. A sample example of a category URL looks like this: store.com/category/category and product: store.com/product/product35.
Be sure not to add the category to the product page URLs, as the categories may change over time. In this way, you save on lengthy redirection processes when you create a product called characteristic.
Get product reviews.
Product reviews have a big impact on your ecommerce conversions. To ensure that product pages aren’t just an incandescence of brands ’own products, it’s a good idea to add automatically updated product reviews.
Honest feedback doesn’t mean you lose visitors from your online store because of bad feedback, but you should think more about this so that the feedback helps the visitor find the right product for him or her. This will also make it easier for you to understand what potential customers are demanding of the products and whether, for example, some changes need to be made to the product range. In product reviews, it’s a good idea to take advantage of structured data so that search engines show reviews right away on the search results page.
Make a blog for your business.
A business blog can, at its best, bring most of the traffic to your site. Blogs can take advantage of long tail keywords that do not make sense to put on category / product pages. Blog topics can cover industry trends, product tips, or inspiration, for example.
A business blog is also important because it communicates to visitors that your business knows what is going on in the industry. It creates authority for your site and is also a convenient way to direct visitors through links to product pages. In this way, it promotes the findability of the site in search engines and at the same time improves the user experience.
Ask others for their opinions.
Once you have been looking at the same website for days, it is no wonder if you’re having a hard time noticing all of its framework. At times, it is good to ask an outside view of your online store so that it really serves many different shoppers at the same time.
You get the most out of this exercise when you are next to your friend watching what he or she is doing. Below are a few examples of what tasks you can give your friend about your online store:
- Ask him to buy his favorite product from the online store (however, so that he quits just before payment). Ask why he chose the product in question, whether there was anything unclear or annoying about the addition to the cart or subsequent events.
- Have him search for a few of your products without using the search feature. Can everything be found quickly?
- Feel free to browse the site and ask for opinions in general, such as what things he may find strange, if something was hard to understand, or if the product pages talk enough about the product. It is also important to ask what he would add to your site.
This is an amazingly simple and effective way to improve the user experience and thereby improve your chances of getting better rankings in search engines. You can also install a Hotjar site survey on your website, for example, where you can decide the questions yourself. This will also give you valuable data quickly on how your site works for your visitors.
What do we learn from this?
Going through and implementing the process described above is sure to take search engine visibility and usability in the right direction in your online store. It should be remembered that ecommerce search engine optimization is ultimately about improving the user experience, meaning that the above measures will not only bring more traffic to your site, but also increase sales conversion rates.