SEO is one of the wisest investments you can make for your Shopify business. Find out more about SEO for eCommerce and how to do it in this article.
eCommerce SEO is the optimization of an online store. The process involves on-site, off-site, and technical SEO to make sure the website’s online visibility rises, as well as its search ranking. As a result, more people see the website, click on it, and become interested in the product and/or services it offers.
According to HubSpot estimates, Google processes around 5.6 billion searches per day. It also owns over 92% of the search engine market value.
So yes, Google is worth optimizing for. Besides, the click-through rate of the first result on the SERP is 29.17% as of 2021. The second result gets 15.29%, and the third – only 9.3%. An over 20% difference shows why it is important to rank TOP-1 in Google for your focus keyword.
SEO for eCommerce helps you reach your target audience without paying a lot of money for ads. This is great for small businesses that don’t have the budget for Google Ads, and an incredible opportunity for large companies to get more traffic.
In this article, we’ll share the 5 main elements of a successful eCommerce SEO strategy that you can use in your next campaign.
SEO for eCommerce includes at least 5 vital elements concerning on-site, off-site, technical SEO, research, and content marketing.
Before doing your keyword research, it’s important to understand the buyer’s search intent. In doing so, you gain insight into what potential customers want to know when they use a query in Google.
There are four main types of buyer intent:
Researching keywords by analyzing the actual search engine results pages for them (paid ads, organic results, SERP features) will provide you with insights into the types of pages and content you need to top the query.
It’s also recommended to use Google Keyword Planner for more insights, as well as other SEO tools.
In addition, it’s very important to check keyword difficulty in the keyword search tool of your choice and pick a query you can realistically rank #1 for.
As you finish building a list of focus keywords for your pages, the next step is to put them in the right places:
Another crucial aspect of on-site SEO for eCommerce is site architecture. Online shops must focus on simplicity and scalability. The website should have an easy-to-understand structure, the simpler – the better.
Each page should be less than 3 clicks from the homepage for simple navigation. Having users view too many pages before the product page detracts from the authority of the page.
If you already have a complex site architecture, don’t change it before consulting with an SEO professional and your website developer. They will help you build the right, logical, simple structure and set up the proper redirects between old and new pages.
The best category for an eCommerce website would be
Homepage > Category > Subcategory > Product
You can also use breadcrumbs to make the website easier to understand. Aside from SEO benefits, this approach is also a usability improvement.
There are no more than 3 clicks, which means the product page will have authority.
As to the content, it has to be sellable. Simply putting keywords out there won’t do the trick. Use attention hooks such as:
Make product descriptions attractive to the buyer. Also, use various types of content such as videos, photos, reviews, user-generated content, etc. These types of content increase engagement and build social proof.
Finally, don’t underestimate rich snippets. They’re a great way to stand out in the SERPs by exhibiting more than just the title and description. Such snippets can show the rating of your product, its price, the number of views, whether it’s in stock, etc.
Plus, aim to be in featured snippets – result #0, which you see before the first result with a part of the content answering your question directly.
A good digital tool can analyze your website and find potential mistakes in minutes. The difficulty is in fixing them, especially for eCommerce websites since there are usually many pages.
Here are some of the most common technical SEO problems:
People will pay attention to your content; it’s what will make them buy from you. To ensure you reach your target audience, optimize your text and media content to the keywords you’ve chosen.
Make sure you use long-tail keywords, as they are usually less competitive and there’s more chance you’ll rank higher sooner.
Also, take advantage of user-generated content. Offer a reward for a video or a picture with a comment about your products and/or services. Content like product reviews and guides, case studies, and true customer stories are very appealing to the public and build social proof.
As to content distribution, don’t underestimate the power of social media. The number of users may reach 4,41 billion by 2025. That’s more than half of the world’s population!
So, it’s vital for any eCommerce business to have a couple of social media channels where they can promote their content, engage and communicate with their customers and buyer prospects, etc.
Choose 1-2 platforms where your target audience is the most active and build a reputation there. Answer comments, reply to messages, direct people to the website, and let them know where they can find more info and place an order. This is the kind of one-on-one communication many people are looking for in brands.
It’s also popular for businesses to create affiliate programs for long-term collaboration with influencers for additional content promotion and other benefits. For example, if you’re offering software as a service (SaaS) products, engaging in a SaaS affiliate program or creating one of your own would be a good idea. Thus, you can turn ambassadors into partners.
Link building is an effective way to spread the word about your brand to your target audience. Getting mentions from relevant, authoritative websites is like getting an honest recommendation in your favor.
Besides, if you have interesting niche-specific information on your website, say, in the blog section, you may also attract readers that can be later converted into customers.
Of course, the number of links you have isn’t as important as backlink quality, so choose websites to collaborate with wisely.
Here are some effective ways to build links:
eCommerce SEO is a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. It’s not as money-consuming as paid ads, and highly beneficial if you top the focus SERP. To build a successful strategy, you should:
All these elements will create a great eCommerce SEO strategy, elevate your website in the SERPs, get more traffic, generate more leads, close more sales, and, as a result, increase revenue.
Digital marketing has become a valuable business focus for companies that want to successfully sell online. But it only works in a combination. If you only build links without on-site optimization, it won’t bring many benefits. If you do on-site SEO without paying attention to technical issues, you won’t top the scores.
That is why building a multi-element strategy is so important.
