eCommerce websites are a great way to increase revenue and grow your business. However, if your site performs well in search results, you need to optimize it with SEO. This article will cover the steps you can take to improve your eCommerce SEO.
Conduct competitor research
Once your website is up and running, the next step is getting some visibility. The best way to do that is by doing competitive research.
There are tons of tools out there that will help you in this regard—Google Trends, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and more—but I always start with the basics: a simple Google search for “[your niche] [city name] [keyword].” Once I have a list of what my competitors are ranking for in terms of keywords, it makes sense to target those exact keywords and see how you can improve your eCommerce SEO efforts.
Choose the right keywords
Choosing the right keywords is the most important part of SEO. We use keyword research tools to find out what people search for, and we use that data to optimize our website accordingly. If you are selling a product, you want to ensure that the people who come across your eCommerce site are interested in buying the products you have for sale.
If you have an eCommerce store selling furniture or clothing, it would be pointless if someone typed in: “furniture” or “clothing” into Google; they would get too many results, and it would be hard for them to find what they wanted quickly. On the other hand, if someone wants a new sofa but has no idea where they can buy one cheaply, then typing in “quality sofas under $500” will show them lots of relevant results!
Focus on homepage SEO
Now that you have your product photos, title, and description ready, it’s time to focus on the most important page of your site: the homepage.
Your goal is to make sure that every piece of information on this page is optimized for search engines. You want people searching for products like yours to find you first; otherwise, they may decide not to buy from you.
Make sure that your product photos are high-quality and clear. Write a short, SEO-friendly description of each product you sell. This will help people find what they’re looking for on Google and other search engines.
Optimize product pages
The most important pages to optimize are your product pages. Since these are the most visited and frequently viewed pages on your site, they should be optimized with the primary keywords you want them to rank for in search engines. You can include a brand name, model number, or name of the product, its size or color, where it was made, and any other information relevant to potential customers who may be looking for this specific item.
Add schema markup
Schema is a structured data markup. It helps Google understand what kind of page it’s dealing with to display more relevant information in its search results. It can be a very beneficial addition to your eCommerce SEO.
Use responsive design
Responsive design is a web development technique where the site’s layout automatically adjusts itself based on screen size. This means that your site looks nice and works well, whether on a large desktop computer or a small smartphone, no matter what device it’s being accessed from.
You might already know this—but if not, here are some of the many benefits of using responsive web design:
- Your website will look great across all devices (no more scrolling down with your mouse!)
- You’ll be able to save money by only designing one website instead of several individual sites for each device type (desktop, laptop, tablet)
- Visitors can quickly find everything they need without having to switch between pages or use different browsers (Google loves this)
Reduce page load speed
Use a CDN
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of servers that serves your website files to visitors from locations close to them. This results in lower page load times and more consistent performance.
Use caching plugins
Caching plugins create static versions of your dynamic content so that it can be served faster by the server and does not need to be generated every time a visitor requests it. They also allow you to take advantage of browser caching, which saves bandwidth and reduces the load on the server. It achieves it by storing “rendered” versions of pages locally on the visitor’s computer for later use whenever they visit again, instead of retrieving them from the server each time like regular browsing does when cookies aren’t present or enabled.
Minimize the number of plugins used
A plugin adds another layer between you and WordPress core files. This means extra code being loaded into webpages before they even get rendered! Some plugins are very light, while others might add 100sKB+ just because they were added but never used within an entire site (which still adds up over time). Try using fewer plugins if possible so that users experience fast loading times..
Lazy loading images
When someone visits your website, many images will be displayed immediately without any delay or noticeable lag. However, too many images could cause problems when quickly browsing through posts. That is because each image must first load before moving onto another post’s contents.
Create backlinks
Backlinks are the backbone of any, especially eCommerce SEO. They’re what Google uses to determine how valuable your website or product is, and you can earn them in various ways. You can create links to your website and blog posts, links to individual products on your website, social media profiles, videos, or links using infographics.
Conclusion
As you can see, eCommerce SEO can be a bit tricky. But if you follow these tips and use them wisely, your site will benefit from increased visibility and sales.
