So, you’ve been told you need to increase your eCommerce business’s online presence, but don’t really know what that means? We’ve got you covered.
First, a disclaimer. While an “online presence” includes many things, such as your social media accounts and your online reputation, this guide will give you invaluable info on the ins and outs of SEO. As an eCommerce SEO agency, we specialize in helping businesses achieve results with SEO strategies tailored specifically for online retailers. Download the SEO checklist that you can use for your business.
Whether you already have a bit of background knowledge in eCommerce SEO strategies or are a complete newcomer, we’re sure you’ll find some new, helpful information to help bolster your eCommerce business’s online presence and bring in new customers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEEL FREE TO SKIM AND JUMP AROUND IN THIS GUIDE TO FIND THE INFORMATION MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU. OR, IF YOU ARE STILL FAIRLY NEW TO ECOMMERCE SEO AND THIS IS ALL UNFAMILIAR, GIVE IT A READ STRAIGHT THROUGH!
1. WHAT IS SEO?
BEFORE WE DIVE INTO THE WEEDS, SEO, OR SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, IS THE PROCESS OF GETTING YOUR WEBSITE TO RANK HIGHLY ON GOOGLE.
With the continued spread of SEO knowledge among eCommerce business owners, it’s important to understand Google has a set of internal rules that it uses to decide what order the results come up in when someone searches a term.
“The goal of their algorithm is to provide Google searchers with the best possible experience using their search engine.”
These rules are, for the most part, closely guarded by Google because they do not want to make it easy to cheat the system. The goal of their algorithm is to provide Google searchers with the best possible experience using their search engine.
In order to get your website on the first page though, you need to learn as much as possible about this algorithm and what Google “likes” and “doesn’t like.” This is something that eCommerce SEO specialists dedicate their careers to. Throughout this guide we are going to share exactly what we do to help our numerous eCommerce business clients’ websites rank highly. These are the exact strategies we use every day and will help you, too!
2. WHY DOES SEO MATTER FOR ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES?
FOR EVERY SINGLE CLIENT WE HAVE EVER HAD, ORGANIC TRAFFIC HAD THE HIGHEST CONVERSION RATE.
Organic traffic is essential for attracting new customers to your eCommerce website. This is the website traffic you get from search engines like Google when someone expresses interest in your product or service. It’s the most cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website in the long run.
What’s the best thing about organic traffic for online businesses? It’s free! Free today, free tomorrow, and free 5 years down the road. You will never have to pay for those clicks. Sure, you will pay in time spent on SEO and resources that go into working on it, but over time your returns in SEO traffic will grow exponentially. One of Google’s ranking factors is actually how much traffic that page gets, so if you work hard on your SEO and start to get some traffic now, Google will only reward you with more traffic as time goes on.
Users who find your website from a search engine are also by far the most qualified types of leads. Rather than someone you served an ad to or that saw your social media post, we know that this person is actively interested in what you sell, because they are searching for it on Google! If you do your keyword research and on-page optimizations strategically, the only time someone will land on your website from a search engine is if they are already somewhere in the sales funnel. They are actively researching something related to what you sell – now let’s get them to your website.
3. KEY CONCEPTS IN SEO EXPLAINED
ORGANIC TRAFFIC
This is the name for traffic from a search engine results page (SERP). It is someone who naturally and “organically” found your website rather than coming to you from an ad or any other source.
SERPS
This is a common abbreviation for “search engine results pages.” These are the results pages when something is searched in Google. Your business ideally should sit right on top of the SERPs.
IMAGE ALT TAGS
Alt tags are bits of code that you add “behind the scenes” to an image that tells Google what the image is. These are also used by Google to figure out what your web page is about. These are especially important for eCommerce websites since images make up a big chunk of your content.
Keywords
This is the term for words and phrases that you want to come up for in Google. These keywords often line up with what words people search for in Google, also known as queries. It’s very important to both identify what keywords you want to come up for in Google and to use those keywords strategically on your website.
Meta Information
This is the information you fill out “behind the scenes” on a website page that appears on SERPs. The main components of a page’s meta information are a title and description of your page. Google uses this information to understand what your page is about, and then also displays it on the results page so that they can choose to click onto your website or not.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links to your website from other places around the web (unfortunately social media doesn’t count). Backlinks from high DA websites are important for overall SEO. Google assumes that if other reputable websites like you enough to link to you, you must be a legitimate website.
GENERAL SEO
For eCommerce businesses, general SEO refers to the strategies and tactics used to improve the visibility and ranking of their website in SERPs on a global or national level. The goal of general SEO is to attract and drive more website traffic from users searching for related products or services. Depending on the business’s goals, different areas of SEO, such as technical SEO, content optimization, and link building, may be emphasized to achieve the desired results.
ON-PAGE VS OFF-PAGE SEO
These terms essentially refer to SEO that happens on your website (like blog posts, keyword optimizations, etc) vs. SEO that happens elsewhere on the web (like backlinks and Google Business listings). Both pieces are necessary to build up organic traffic and a high domain authority.
Headers
Headers are features of a webpage that break up copy and sections with a larger text header. Headers are also a feature that search engines look at to figure out what the important parts of your web page are.
DOMAIN AUTHORITY
Often called “DA,” domain authority is essentially a score that Google gives your website of how good it thinks your domain/website is overall. You can build DA by practicing good SEO and it can take time for your DA to grow as Google trusts your website more and more. Once you have a high DA, it is easier to get new pages to rank because Google already knows you as a good provider of information. A low DA from either a new, poorly made website, or a spammy site will make it difficult to rank any pages in Google.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO encompasses the website design side of things. It includes how quickly your site loads, if your page’s meta information is coded correctly, if it works well on mobile, if you have duplicate content, etc. It is a very wide category that is thankfully not as difficult as it once was, thanks to the help of Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, and other helpful eCommerce platforms and website builders. But there are many components you do still need to pay attention to despite the help of these platforms.
USER EXPERIENCE
One thing that Google uses to gauge the quality of your website is how visitors act once Google sends traffic there. Do they leave immediately, or do they stay on a page for a long time? Do they visit multiple pages and even fill out a contact form? A good quality user experience can be measured by using metrics like bounce rates, average time spent on a page, pages per visit, and more.
PAGE LENGTH
As a general rule, the longer a page’s text is, the better. Google likes lots of words on a page. For example, the average search result on the first page of Google has over 1,400 words. The minimum amount of acceptable words on a page is generally 300.
4. ON-PAGE SEO FOR ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES
1. Identify a target keyword for each unique website page you have
2. Use that target keyword on your web page strategically
3. Use your target keyword in your meta information
4. Make sure your page is at least 300 words long and up to 1,500+ words
5. Make your page engaging and high quality enough that people will stay on your website for a while
6. Use headers and mixed media like photos and videos
1. IDENTIFY A TARGET KEYWORD FOR EACH UNIQUE WEBSITE PAGE YOU HAVE
TARGET KEYWORDS SHOULD BE RELEVANT TO THE PAGE’S CONTENT, HAVE A SIGNIFICANT SEARCH VOLUME, AND HAVE LOW-TO-MODERATE COMPETITION.
To give your business site the best chance at ranking well, each unique page should have its own target keyword. The more specific your pages are, the better. Every topic on your website that you want to show up for in a Google search should have its own page. For example, if you want to come up for both “running shoes” and “cross-training shoes,” each of those topics should be on their own page and unique target keyword.
So, how do you pick a target keyword? Put yourself in the shoes (no pun intended) of your ideal customer. What are they typing into Google right now to find you? Start with your idea of what they might Google and do some research to find the very best possible way to phrase it for the search engines. This can involve using an SEO tool like SEMrush or MOZ, but you can also type it into Google and look at the suggested phrases to see if other people word it differently. You can even see what terms your competitors use on their web pages for ideas as well. Your goal is to phrase it the most commonly Googled way.
2. USE THAT TARGET KEYWORD ON YOUR WEBSITE’S PAGES STRATEGICALLY
Using a target keyword in these ways will signal Google as to what sort of Google searches they should match your website to.
Now that you have your target keyword, we need to add it to your web page. So let’s say you have on online bookstore. To make sure your website comes up when someone searches “online bookstore,” you will need to put that keyword on your website several times in order to alert Google of what your website is about. If all you do is sell books, then having that be the focus keyword of your homepage will work great. If you offer multiple products though, like selling tea or candles inspired by literature, create a unique page for each product with its own target keyword.
In order to optimize your page for your target keyword, you will want to use that keyword about once per every 100 words. You will also want to make sure you use that keyword in your page’s title, your H1, and several other headers if possible. You also want to use this keyword in your image alt tags and in your meta information, more on that below. However, please remember that alt tags are not a place to stuff keywords. They are primarily a way to describe an image.
3. USE YOUR TARGET KEYWORD IN YOUR META INFORMATION
INCLUDING A TARGET KEYWORD IN META INFORMATION IMPROVES VISIBILITY AND YOUR SITE’S CLICK-THROUGH RATE.
The most important features of your meta information is your page’s meta title and meta description. This is the title of a page and informational snippet that you see on a SERP, or search engine results page.
This information is not only very important because it is one of the first things Google reads about your page, but it also needs to be compelling enough to get people to click on your link. Your meta information should match up with the content of your page but also be interesting and eye-catching.
4. MAKE SURE YOUR PAGE IS AT LEAST 300 WORDS LONG AND UP TO 1,500+ WORDS
As long as your page will not lose its quality, aim for around 1,500 words per page.
Did you know that the average first page Google result is a page with over 1,300 words? While the bare minimum to rank well is 300 words on a page, more is almost always better.
If you are having trouble creating a long but interesting page, one trick is to make the first half of the page beautiful and engaging, but then include extra information down below. That way, if someone is not really interested in doing a lot of reading, you can still make the page skimmable for them but get up to 1,500 words down below that.
5. MAKE YOUR PAGE ENGAGING AND HIGH QUALITY ENOUGH THAT PEOPLE WILL STAY ON YOUR WEBSITE FOR A WHILE
Google assumes that the longer someone stays, the higher quality the page must be.
One other trigger that Google looks at for on-page SEO is how long a user stays on that page and on your website overall.
One way to get people to stay on your page for a while is to write a lot of content, but another tactic people sometimes use is to include videos on their pages. When a user stops to watch a video, it can keep them occupied for 30 seconds to a minute plus, thus increasing their time spent on your website!
It is also great to get users to view multiple pages and even take an action like filling out a form. Be sure to make your website and your pages browsable by including links to relevant pages and embedding forms for submitting inquiries.
6. USE HEADERS AND MIXED MEDIA LIKE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
BREAK UP TEXT AND TOPICS WITH HEADERS, IMAGES, AND VIDEO TO KEEP USERS ENGAGED (AND GOOGLE HAPPY).
HEADERS
VIDEOS
PHOTOS
The last tip for on-page SEO for eCommerce businesses is to make sure you use appropriate headers and mixed media like photos and videos on your website. Both website users and Google like to see a variety of forms of information. Some people will only skim and look at images while others like to read and watch videos. Give users the experience of their preference by including different forms of content.
You will also always need to always use H1 and H2 headers if applicable. Break up topics, and topics within topics, by adding headers with what the paragraph is about when you change topics throughout a page. There are also sub-headers like H3s and H4s that can be used for topics within topics. You will want your page to be skimmable (if someone only read your headers, would they still be able to tell what the page was about?) and Google reads headers before paragraph text so use your target keywords.
5. TECHNICAL SEO For ECommerce Businesses
With modern website builders like WordPress and Squarespace, good technical SEO has never been easier. You no longer need to be an experienced website developer to practice good technical SEO. The topics below though are the most commonly neglected areas of technical SEO, even with the help of a website builder.
1. Make sure the meta information, title, and description, is filled out for every page
2. Do not use duplicate content on your website
3. Have at least 300 words on every page
4. Make sure your website’s load speed is not overly slow
5. Optimize your website for mobile devices
6. Fix any dead links and redirect 4XX error pages
1. MAKE SURE THE META INFORMATION, TITLE, AND DESCRIPTION ARE FILLED OUT FOR EVERY PAGE.
PROVIDING META INFORMATION BOOSTS SEO, IMPROVES USER EXPERIENCE, AND STRENGTHENS YOUR BRANDING AND MESSAGING.
Meta information is the very first and most important thing that Google looks at for SEO. If it is not filled out and optimized, you are missing out on a big opportunity. It can even lead Google to see your website as poor quality. Use your focus keyword for that page in the title, and write a brief but precise description also using your target keyword if possible.
Even simple pages still need to have their meta-information filled out. Some of your pages might just be a contact form or contain your address, but you still need to fill out the meta-information on these pages.
2. DO NOT USE DUPLICATE CONTENT ON YOUR WEBSITE
If you are writing on the same subject over and over, you will need to re-phrase and write in a slightly different way every time.
It happens time and time again; you are writing a new page and want to include some information already on another page you created. Why not just copy and paste it in? SEO is why!
Google will penalize you for duplicate content. If you are writing on the same subject over and over, you will need to re-phrase and write in a slightly different way every time. This, understandably, can be frustrating, but if SEO was easy, everyone would be a pro at it! Although you can use an AI tool to help you brainstorm and generate fresh content, it’s best to have eCommerce marketing professionals check it to ensure it aligns with your brand and target audience.
3. HAVE AT LEAST 300 WORDS ON EVERY PAGE
HAVING “THIN CONTENT” ON YOUR SITE MAKES IT DIFFICULT FOR SEARCH ENGINES TO KNOW WHAT YOUR SITE’S ABOUT AND THE INFORMATION IT PROVIDES.
While 300 is an estimated minimum amount of words, Google will penalize you for having “thin content” on your pages. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a minimum of 300 words but up to 1,500. 500-700 is often a popular amount to aim for. Google uses page length as one of its many signals to gauge the quality of your pages and website.
4. MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE’S LOAD SPEED IS NOT OVERLY SLOW
DON’T LOSE ONLINE WINDOW SHOPPING CUSTOMERS TO SLOW SITE SPEED.
Slow load speeds can lead to higher bounce rates, especially for those using mobile devices. There are tools to check your load speeds like Google’s PageSpeed Insights and avoid using very large images and outdated code like JavaScript. It can be a balancing act between great design and fast load speeds. When in doubt, compare your bounce rates between pages to see if the slower loading pages are losing more users than speedier pages.
5. OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR MOBILE DEVICES
DON’T LOSE WINDOW SHOPPING ONLINE CUSTOMERS TO SLOW SITE SPEED.
Mobile devices have become the go-to choice for online shopping, with a significant increase in mobile internet usage in recent years. According to Statista, “in 2022, mobile retail eCommerce spending in the U.S. surpassed 387 billion U.S. dollars, more than double the spending done in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.” This trend is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.
Because Commerce sites get a lot of traffic from mobile devices, a fast page load speed is imperative.
6. FIX ANY DEAD LINKS AND REDIRECT 4XX ERROR PAGES
DEAD LINKS AND ERROR PAGES CAN FRUSTRATE USERS, LEADING TO INCREASED BOUNCE RATES AND DECREASED SALES.
Your website should never have any 4XX error pages or have any dead links. By using an SEO tool like SEMrush you can get weekly reports on your website’s health, along with a list of any of these problems. In any case though, only change URLs when absolutely necessary, always redirect any URLs you change to the next most relevant page, and check your outside links often to make sure the content they link to still exists.
6. ON-GOING CONTENT CREATION FOR ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES
STRATEGIES FOR ON-GOING CONTENT CREATION FOR SEO:
One ranking signal that Google uses to decide how highly to rank your website is how often your website is updated. Show Google that you are an active website by publishing new content and new pages on a regular basis. This is also a great opportunity to attract your target audience through the type of content you create.
1. Identify your target audience and what content they want
2. Create new content and new website pages regularly
3. Optimize all new content for SEO
1. IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND WHAT CONTENT THEY WANT
There is nothing worse than spending hours creating a piece of content, months promoting it, only to realize that the people reading this content will never be paying customers.
Say you sell gourmet cooking supplies. You may have two different target audiences. The first may be mainly interested in reading content about topics like proper wok care or the benefits of sous-vide cooking. On the other hand, the second audience may want to learn more about cooking, but also desires the convenience of purchasing a gadget that simplifies their cooking process.
By recognizing your target audiences’ different needs and interests, you can tailor your content to better meet their preferences. For the first audience, you could share cooking techniques and tips. For the second audience, you could feature your latest gadgets and kitchen tools on your homepage or offer targeted promotions on related products.
Ultimately, understanding your target audience’s diverse preferences is essential for creating content that resonates with your customers.
2. CREATE NEW CONTENT AND NEW WEBSITE PAGES REGULARLY
PRODUCING NEW CONTENT AND PAGES REGULARLY KEEPS USERS ENGAGED, BUILDS BRAND CREDIBILITY, AND INCREASES SITE VISIBILITY.
There are two effective and easy ways to keep a steady stream of new pages coming to your website: blog posts and landing pages.
A great goal is to put out one piece of new content per week!
Post either a blog post or landing page but even once a month is still better than performing no ongoing work.
Blog posts should consist of 500-700 word posts on topics relevant to your target audience. Blog topics can range from commonly asked questions in your industry to human interest pieces that your target audience might find interesting, to topics designed to reach people in the research stage of a purchase. Create your blog posts around what you think someone considering your product or service might Google – like “How much are silk lampshades?” for interior decor, or “Benefits of using a CRM” if you sell a CRM software.
Landing pages, on the other hand, are designed to be more product/service-based while still providing valuable information. However, their goal is to be more focused on what you sell vs. sharing interesting information. These pages are designed to not necessarily be accessible in your website’s menu but are more so designed to be entered directly from a search engine.
So here’s an example: If you sell flashlights, your main categories might be camping flashlights, everyday carry flashlights, and tactical flashlights. Perhaps you want to rank higher for the term “LED rechargeable flashlights,” though. A landing page that is that specific isn’t really needed in your main menu’s categories, and maybe even all of your flashlights already are LED rechargeable flashlights. But if you create a landing page tailor-made to that keyword with shoppable products and 500+ words of text all about “LED rechargeable flashlights,” you are much more likely to rank highly with that page than if you simply mention this term randomly on various pages.
3. OPTIMIZE ALL NEW CONTENT FOR SEO
OPTIMIZED CONTENT IS A MAGNET THAT ATTRACTS POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS AND ORGANIC TRAFFIC LONG AFTER IT’S INITIALLY PUBLISHED.
With all of this new content you are going to create, the same basic rules for on-page optimizations we discussed earlier will apply. Each new blog post or landing page will need: a focus keyword, should be 300 words at a minimum, should have headers, mixed media, and your focus keyword should be used strategically.
There really isn’t a point of creating new content if it is not optimized for search engines.
Otherwise, you will have to rely on ads or social media marketing in order to get traffic. While those strategies will take work on your part to earn every view, a well-optimized piece of content will earn its own traffic from Google!
7. BACKLINKING & OFF-SITE SEO FOR ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES
HOW TO DO BACKLINKING & OFF-SITE SEO FOR ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES:
While the bread and butter of SEO lies on your website, off-page SEO is also a vital piece of the puzzle. Google does track how many other sites out there on the internet link to your website and uses that as a signal that your website must be high quality. And the higher the quality of the website that links to you, the more valuable the link is. Off-site SEO can also be important for local SEO and to make sure that Google knows where your business is physically located.
1. Great content leads to great links
2. Outreach strategies
3. Guest posting for backlinks
4. Social Media Accounts
5. Do not buy links
1. GREAT CONTENT LEADS TO GREAT LINKS
Step one of a backlinking SEO strategy is to make sure you have great content and a great website that people would want to link to. The first thing websites will ask themselves when considering linking to you is, does this link add value to my readers? If the answer is no, they will not link to you. Be sure that your website and blog content is well written and informative.
By creating high-quality content and great graphics, you can actually earn backlinks with no effort at all. Blogs, news articles, and content writers are always looking for quality sources and information for their websites. If you create awesome enough content, over time the links will come on their own. Be the type of site you would want to link to in your own blog!
How does this look in practice for an eCommerce brand? Let’s say your company sells flashlights. If your blog has posts on, say, hiking, then this information should be well-researched and useful to your target audience. This will strengthen your content and is more likely to attract backlinks to you.
2. OUTREACH STRATEGIES
While getting links with no effort does happen, and is great when it does, you do often have to do some outreach as well. This is a necessary strategy for both new websites and brand new content that doesn’t rank in search engines at all yet.
Some of the most common outreach strategies include looking up similar content to your piece of content and then reaching out to those article writers and asking them to include a link to you. They will only do this if they think linking to you can add value for their readers. This is time-consuming and can take a lot of research, but make sure you always explain exactly why they should link to your article in your outreach email. Maybe you will offer them a link in return, or maybe they can include your infographic in their blog post if they will credit you.
Another popular tactic for backlink outreach is to find blogs with dead links and to email them to suggest that they change the link over to your link instead. This is mutually beneficial in that they will fix a dead link on their page, and you get a new backlink to your website in return. This dead backlink technique does require the use of an SEO tool though, otherwise, it is nearly impossible to find these dead links.
One strategy for eCommerce-specific outreach is to find blogs and websites focused on topics related to your product or service. For instance, if you sell women’s fashion, look for fashion bloggers or websites featuring clothing or accessories. Then, contact the owners to see if they’d be interested in including a link to your online store in their content. In exchange, they have an opportunity to provide value to their audience, monetize the content, and even improve their search engine rankings.
3. GUEST POSTING FOR BACKLINKS
Another technique for building backlinks is to guest post on other blogs. These blogs will get free content, and in return, you will get a link back to your website. Finding the right blog to guest post on can take time and effort, but once you establish a relationship with a particular blog, it can be much easier to continually guest post with them in the future.
Most blogs will have information about guest posting on their contact page. If they accept guest post submissions there will often be instructions on submitting a guest post and any other requirements they might have. You will often need to create original content for guest posts and they will need to make sense with whatever niche you and the guest blog are in.
When crafting your guest post, make sure it is original and well-written. Include relevant keywords and links to related content and products where appropriate. It’s also good to include a brief author bio and a link to your eCommerce store in the byline or at the end of the post.
4. SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
While social media account links don’t contribute to your website’s SEO, according to Google, gaining new traffic does. So the more people who see your posts on social, the more likely they are to come to your website.
Whenever you publish a new blog post or a customer posts a positive product review, share it on all your social media channels. Doing so can earn you links from other sites, boost engagement, and increase your site’s visibility. Before sharing a post, optimize it for SEO to make it easy for your target audience to find your content. Do this by including relevant, precise hashtags. This can also lead to more shares, backlinks, and improved off-site SEO.
Another way to build your online presence and encourage social sharing is to interact with your followers on social media. Ask questions, share user-generated content, and respond to comments. Additionally, you can ask influencers in your niche to review your products and host social media contests, giveaways, and promotions to encourage user engagement and participation. These strategies help build your online presence and increase the likelihood of your content being shared, potentially leading to backlinks.
5. DO NOT BUY LINKS
Lastly, it is not recommended that you buy links. Google will, in fact, penalize you for having low-quality backlinks from spammy or poorly created websites. Most links that are for sale are from sites that prey on inexperienced business owners looking for shortcuts. While tempting, purchased links more often than not end up doing more damage than good.
Instead of buying links, we recommend looking for relevant eCommerce directories to build links to your site. A directory is a site that lists other websites in a specific industry or category.
You can find relevant eCommerce directories by searching for your niche followed by the word “list” or “directory.” For instance, say you sell handmade jewelry. You can search for “handmade jewelry maker list” or “jewelry directory” to find relevant directories.
When compiling your directory list, focus on well-established ones with a good reputation and a high domain authority. Once you’re ready to submit your site to directories, provide up-to-date business information, follow their guidelines, double-check that you have the right site URL, and include a relevant and informative description.
8. IN CONCLUSION
SEO is in constant flux, and it’s our job as an eCommerce marketing agency to try to make sense of it. This guide thoroughly outlined the real steps we take to help our clients knock it out of the park with SEO every day. Using these tested strategies will not only help you get more traffic to your website, but will help you grow your eCommerce business overall in a sustainable way.
We have decades of experience working with eCommerce businesses to drive meaningful results. Schedule a free consultation with us to see what we can do for you.