Nine SEO Tips for eCommerce Websites

If you intend to sell products or services online, you must ensure that people can find you.

If people can’t find you when they search online, it’s pointless to have a well-designed website with the best products at great prices. The higher your position, the better. If your page ranks first for a keyword, it will receive ten times the number of clicks as if it ranks tenth. Furthermore, the average click through rate for websites on Google’s second page is less than 1%.

This is where all of your SEO efforts will pay off. People are more likely to find you if you rank higher in search results. And the more traffic you get, the more sales you’re likely to make.

Here are nine pointers to help you get the most out of your SEO efforts:

1. Determine the most effective keywords

Keywords are phrases that people look up on the internet. These are the terms you should concentrate on in order to appear to potential customers looking for your products.

You can have as many keywords as you want, but it’s crucial to share the love. Your goal is to inform Google about the content of each page on your site so that it can appear in relevant searches. Don’t waste time focusing on multiple keywords for each page; this will only muddy the waters! Instead, for each product, page, or category, choose one (or two) terms to focus on.

However, how do you choose the best keywords to use? Here are some suggestions:

• Begin with what you already know. Make a list of what you have to offer, as well as terms that are related. If you sell pet supplies, that list might include items like “ID tags,” “toy mice,” and “dog food.” These terms can have a lot of different meanings.
• Look at the numbers. Also, look at any existing analytics and data to see what keywords people are already using to find you. Google Analytics and Moz Keyword Explorer, for example, can be extremely useful in this situation.
• Make an effort to be specific. You want to be more specific now. After all, with broad keywords like “dog food,” you’re not going to be able to compete with the big boys. Concentrate on your distinguishing features and products. Specific keywords might include “non-GMO puppy food” or “custom, hand-stitched dog tags,” for example.
• Achieve a balance between search volume and competition. Yes, you want to find keywords that a lot of people are looking for, but you also want to find keywords that are feasible. Again, a pet store is unlikely to come up first when searching for “dog food.” You should aim for relevant terms with a high search volume and that are relatively easy to rank for. However, you may want to aim for some lofty phrases, as long as you keep in mind that this is a long-term strategy. To find data for each term, you can use tools like Google Keyword Planner.
• Consider the user’s intent. When someone searches the internet, they have a goal in mind. A good user intent for an eCommerce store would be to make a purchase. Keywords can help you figure out what each searcher is looking for. Someone looking up “average pet store revenue,” for example, could be looking for information on how to start their own business. However, someone looking for “pet stores with overnight shipping” is most likely looking to buy something right now. Of course, focusing on keywords that are more likely to result in a purchase is a better strategy.

2. Create detailed product descriptions

There should be more than just a price, a photo, and a title on each product page. It should also include a detailed description of the item that “sells” it to both customers and search engines.

Begin by considering what kind of information potential customers will find useful. This could include measurements, ingredients, age ranges, or instructions, depending on your products.

Then be specific and descriptive. Is your candle’s scent transporting you to a fall forest? Is your a-line gown suitable for a night out on the town? Do your blocks work in a STEM classroom? That is something you should write about.

Include the keywords you chose for each individual product page, if applicable. But don’t just stuff them in as many times as possible. Instead, incorporate them into your existing content in a natural way.

If you’re selling a dark chocolate raspberry chocolate bar, don’t write something like:

“Dark chocolate raspberry chocolate bars are what we sell. The finest Dutch-processed cocoa powder is used to make our dark chocolate raspberry chocolate bars. If you’re interested in purchasing our dark chocolate raspberry chocolate bar, please click the button below.”

Does that make sense? Not in the least. To have a successful SEO strategy, keep in mind that you must first focus on your site visitors. Instead, you could write something like this:

“For bold flavour lovers, our new dark chocolate raspberry chocolate bar is the perfect choice. It’s filled with a tart, gooey raspberry jam that zings with every bite and is made with the finest Dutch-processed cocoa powder.”

This type of description not only naturally incorporates the keyword, but also aids shoppers in visualising the exact experience of biting into the chocolate bar.

3. Keep an eye out for duplicate content.

Text that appears in multiple places online, whether on your own or on someone else’s website, is known as duplicate content. Google and other search engines hate duplicate content because it’s confusing. They have no idea which version is the most accurate and correct, so they don’t know how to rank them.

So, how do you keep your online store from having duplicate content?

• Don’t just copy and paste descriptions from manufacturers. Make sure you’re not just adding the supplier’s default descriptions if you dropship products. After all, it’s likely that everyone else selling the same items is doing the same thing. Instead, stand out by putting your own stamp on things.
• Make each product’s description unique. It’s tempting to just copy and paste the same description multiple times if you have similar products. However, this may cause both product pages’ rankings to be diluted. Spend some time pondering what makes each one unique and concentrating on that.
• Double-check the structure of your URLs. Session IDs, tracking links, and pagination issues are all things to keep an eye out for.

4. In the anchor text, use strategic keywords.

Internal links, or links to other pages on your own site, are extremely beneficial in terms of SEO. They’re a great way for Google to figure out how all of your pages are related.

However, don’t just use phrases like “click here” or “check this out” as anchor text when creating these links. Instead, include your keywords when appropriate.

“Click here for our list of the best toys for toddlers,” for example, isn’t appropriate.

“Our list of the best toys for toddlers has even more great gift ideas!” is much better.

5. Make it simple for search engines to crawl your URL structure.

First and foremost, good URLs provide an excellent user experience by giving visitors a sneak peek at the content of the page. However, they do the same thing for search engines.

Make your URLs as short, concise, and descriptive as possible. For example, if you’re selling a French press, you shouldn’t use a product URL like example.com/store/products/374820/show. Instead, use something like example.com/machines/french-press. See how much easier that is to use?

You should also include keywords where appropriate. Your primary focus should be on the site visitor’s experience. However, you might be able to tuck a keyword into the URL while keeping it flowing nicely.

6. Make sure your images have alt text.

Your images are invisible to search engines. So, how do they figure out what’s in each image? Alternate text.

The alt text for each image on your site is essentially a caption that should include your target keyword and be as descriptive as possible. The second part is crucial: your goal should be to describe your image in such a way that someone who has never seen it can understand it. Why? Because screen readers use alt text to “read” images to those with visual impairments.

So, if you’re able to include a target keyword, that’s fantastic! If the keyword isn’t necessary to describe the image, remove it.

7. Test your targets with Google Ads.

Do you remember how important user intent is? If you’re going to devote countless hours and resources to ranking for a specific term, you don’t want to discover that it only attracts visitors who aren’t interested in buying what you have to offer.

Temporarily paying for placement is a relatively inexpensive way to determine the value of ranking for a term. That is exactly what Google Ads allows you to do. Setting up a campaign and tracking your results is a breeze with the Google Listings & Ads extension for Woocommerce.

Make an ad group that only contains a few hyper-specific terms. When entering keywords, make sure to use brackets [] or quotation marks ” ” so that your ads appear only when people search for keywords that are closely related to the ones you’re targeting.

You’ll be able to tell if the traffic generated by those keywords actually brings you paying customers if you have conversions enabled properly. To determine the quality of traffic it brings, compare the results of that campaign to the results of other campaigns or other store metrics.

If the paid campaign is profitable, you may decide to keep it running until you achieve organic rankings and can get top placement for free!

8. Avoid broken links.

Broken links are not only inconvenient for site visitors, but they’re also inconvenient for search engines. After all, links help Google understand your site’s structure and trust that the information you’re sharing is accurate.

However, manually monitoring all of your links can be difficult (and time-consuming!). To keep an eye on things, you can use tools like Screaming Frog or the Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress. If you change a page’s URL, consider using a 301 redirect to notify search engines that the link has been updated.

9. Boost the speed of your website

Because a fast-loading site is essential for a positive user experience, it’s no surprise that search engines take speed into account when ranking your pages. Here are a few pointers to help you make your store as quick as possible:

• Improve the quality of your images. When possible, use the largest file size possible and compress media files.
• Create a caching system. Caching stores a copy of your website in the browsers of visitors so that it loads much faster the next time they visit. WP Super Cache is a plugin that can help you do this.
• Consider using a CDN. A content delivery network (CDN) stores large files off-site, allowing them to load more quickly. It also loads your site from distributed servers that are closest to each individual visitor’s location. Jetpack comes with a fantastic free WordPress CDN.
• On WordPress keep the number of plugins you use to a minimum. The more plugins you have, the more code you have, and the more weight your site carries. Keep only the essentials installed, and think about using tools like Jetpack, which has multiple functions.
• Update WordPress, your theme, and your plugins on a regular basis. Updates frequently include code that is optimised to load faster. It’s also necessary for security and functionality!
• Make your code more efficient. With just a few clicks, you can optimise your CSS structure, defer non-essential Javascript, and lazy load images using a tool like Jetpack Boost.

What is the most crucial piece of advice? The user experience should be prioritised.

You’ll probably notice that all of the suggestions here have one thing in common: they’re all about real people.

Search engines want to give their users the best results possible. You’ll be well on your way to excellent search engine optimisation if you focus on your audience and provide them with a great experience.