With the rise in social media marketing and paid advertisement, many businesses have started to neglect SEO. Even if some implement SEO for their e-commerce stores, it fails to bring desired results. It is because of a lack of knowledge. For this reason, it is crucial to get acquainted with the fundamentals of e-commerce SEO.
But before we start, let us have a look at some interesting stats. With this, you will know why SEO is essential for e-commerce.
- Search is responsible for nearly 39% of traffic on e-commerce sites.
- Compared to social media, search engines bring ten times more traffic to e-commerce.
- According to Bing Digital, around 70-80% of online users avoid sponsored ads. They prefer e-commerce sites or websites with organic ranking.
- Do you know 75% of online users depend on Google for product research before purchase?
With these statistics, we can see why companies hire professional SEO experts. Plus, it shows the importance of including SEO in your marketing strategy. Are you getting started with SEO for your e-commerce site? If yes, here is an introductory guide. But what is SEO for e-commerce sites?
- SEO for e-commerce: An overview
SEO for e-commerce refers to a marketing strategy that helps online retailers rank their sites on search engines. You must be wondering which websites rank higher? A well-designed and SEO-optimized e-commerce site gets better ranking on search engines. Did we mention about high-quality content?If you have this, your online retail store will be more visible and drive more traffic.
In simple words, SEO focuses on optimizing your e-commerce site. As a result, it boosts leads and conversions. If you want to ensure excellent results, hire a professional SEO services company.
- How to optimize your e-commerce store to ensure growth?
When it comes to optimizing your e-commerce site, the process is not as easy as it looks. Therefore, hire a professional SEO consultant with years of experience and expertise. Let us dig into a guide to optimizing your e-commerce store.
- Use the power of keyword research – Using keywords for e-commerce is nothing like other sites. It involves transactional-based keywords. These comprise words or terms your potential customers use to conduct an online search. Some of the examples are:
- Buy a white Zara dress online
- Zara dresses on sale
- Where to buy Zara dresses
- Zara dresses near me
Here are tips to consider when using transactional-based keywords.
- Use these keywords on both product and product category pages.
- Also, you need to optimize your product categories for these searches.
But you cannot use generic keywords, as they may not be suitable for an e-commerce store. Therefore, it is vital to understand what will be the returned results while searching.
For example, using “Zara dresses†for Google search may not rank your e-commerce site. After all, the search is not focused on purchasing. But the “Zara dresses for sale†is a better term to use for your product category and product pages.
In short, you should use relevant and popular keywords while understanding buyer intent.
- Create unique content – Many e-commerce site owners would agree that producing engaging content is the biggest challenge. Also, they struggle to deal with thin pages. What are thin pages? These refer to pages with little-to-no content that are hard to rank on search engines.
There are plenty of e-commerce websites that do not get ranked on the first page of Google. Most have one problem – product pages with little or no content. You know digital space is highly competitive. Thus, you need to optimize all pages of your e-commerce site for search. We will understand it in detail in the next part.- How to optimize product category pages? – E-commerce store owners use product category pages to segment their products based on specific attributes. So, optimizing these pages is crucial. Here are some ways to achieve this.
- The purpose of writing product category content is to encourage your visitors to make a purchase. For this, you should not write more than one or two paragraphs for category explanation. It should tell your user about the page and what they should do next.
- Besides a product image and title, do add product descriptions. By adding a product description on the category page, you can offer more value to your users.
- How to optimize product pages? – Compared to product category pages, optimizing product pages is more demanding. In this case, a supplier provides you with the content most time. If they do not supply it, people copy it from other websites. It leads to a problem called duplicate content. With this, you cannot make your e-commerce store outshine because thousands of websites might be using similar content. Follow these tips to get your content page off the ground.
- Explain your product using as many details as possible.
- Generate content that is unique and has an engaging and conversational tone.
- How to optimize product category pages? – E-commerce store owners use product category pages to segment their products based on specific attributes. So, optimizing these pages is crucial. Here are some ways to achieve this.
- Use schema markup – Schema markup is also known as HTML markup. It helps you define your product or information with precision. In SEO, it helps bring focus on the product information. By using schema for your e-commerce store, you can provide Google with the following details about your product.
- Name
- Description
- Price of the product
- The rate of a product
- Availability (how much is in stock)
With this information, search engines can understand your products better. Also, they can index your product with accuracy. What does this mean?
It further allows Google to add your product pages in search results correctly. As a result, you can ensure a better ranking of your product-based results and featured snippets by IProduct.
- Add a canonical URL – In some cases, e-commerce site owners serve duplicate content. And they do not even know about it. How?
When they allow product sorting based on size, color, or high-to-low on their e-commerce store, the page URL changes as users sort products. It leads to two URL pages of similar content. They may be presented differently or in the same way. But having two pages may affect your online ranking. After all, Google does not appreciate this.
Two pages with similar content confuse Google, so it fails to decide which one to rank. But you can resolve this issue by adding a canonical URL to the main version. It helps search engines to understand which tag should be indexed.
- Include testimonials – Word-of-mouth is the best way to promote a brand or product. For example, if your friend or family member recommends a product, you will immediately search it online. You may end up purchasing it. But the probability of buying a product that no one suggests is very thin.
Therefore, if you want to improve the chances of your product sale, add reviews and testimonials on your product page. It will help you build trust with your customers. Consequently, you can ensure more sales.
In closing
These are the best practices of SEO that you can employ for your e-commerce store in 2022. As mentioned already, using SEO for e-commerce is different from websites. Therefore, keep these tips when you optimize your online retail store. When it comes to SEO, the algorithms and rules change every day. Thus, hire a professional SEO agency that is pioneered in adopting the latest tools and technologies.
If you are searching for a professional SEO company in India, contact SoftProdigy. We house a team of SEO specialists delivering top-notch services for years.
FAQs
- What is SEO for e-commerce?
SEO or search engine optimization for e-commerce is a marketing strategy that helps online retailers to rank their sites high on search engines.
- Is SEO crucial for your e-commerce store?
Yes, it is the best way to attract potential customers to your e-commerce site without spending money on ads. Do you know most users prefer e-stores with organic traffic and ranking? Once they land on your site, you can convert them into customers with quality products and unique content.
- Why is SEO better than pay-per-click ads?
SEO focuses on offering consistent results while increasing the value and authority of your website. On the other hand, pay-per-click (PPC) offers immediate yet time-sensitive results. Also, SEO is affordable and gives a higher return on investment.