If you’re wondering how to do SEO for your e-commerce, then you’ve come to the right place! In this guide, we will teach you everything you need to know about SEO for e-commerce and what are the most important steps you can’t skip if you want your online store to succeed.
From Rodanet, experts in SEO for e-commerce, digital and content marketing, we have created this guide with a very specific objective: to help small and large businesses to optimize their e-commerce to sell more and beat the competition.
Whether you are a entrepreneur who has realized the importance of SEO for the development and growth of your company, a marketing manager who wants to know all the resources to increase the sales and results of his e-commerce or a seller which studies the latest SEO updates in the e-commerce field, ¡this will interest you!
SEO has a higher return on investment than all other strategies that can be employed to develop and grow an online business, but despite this, most e-commerce sites are poorly optimized.
Generally, both agencies and online store owners invest in paid advertising activities, such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads. Two fantastic tools that can deliver excellent results, but need a steady stream of investment to work and deliver results.
SEO, on the other hand, requires more effort, but pays off over time. In fact, SEO can be an excellent strategy to get free and recurring traffic with good conversion rates in e-commerce, if used in the right way.
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Why is SEO important for e-commerce?
SEO is one of the fundamental strategies for any online business, and is used to optimize a website so that it ranks as high as possible in the results when certain keywords are searched for on search engines such as Google.
In fact, the goal of search engines is to show the user results that are as close as possible to the desired solution. In technical jargon, this is called search intent, i.e., the end goal of a given web search.
Therefore, doing SEO for your online store is fundamental, since this means being able to show your product to people who are very interested and more likely to buy. Optimizing SEO for an online store means only one thing: offering the best solution to a clear and well-defined search intent.
But is this enough to convince you that SEO is really important for an e-commerce business? There are thousands of reasons why you should optimize your e-commerce to get the highest possible visibility in search engines. In fact, did you know that organic search brings in 300% more traffic than any social media activity?
Also SEMrush, for example, analyzed 13 e-commerce sites from completely different niches and found that organic and direct traffic covered 80% of the visitors of all the online stores analyzed.
Once again it highlights the importance of SEO, and how it can really make a difference in your e-commerce and help you sell more. Although it requires a lot of work, the results will not be long in coming.
So far we have seen why SEO is important for an e-commerce and what impact it has on an online store’s traffic sources, butwhat is SEO for e-commerce and how is it done? We explain it to you.
How to do SEO for your e-commerce
For an e-commerce, doing SEO means writing detailed product descriptions, optimizing videos and images for each item, and publishing reviews to help users make the best possible decision. To do this we will also have to optimize all marketing tools and channels: the wording of product descriptions and store pages, web design and user experience, images, videos and much more.
Therefore, before starting and in order to achieve the desired results, it is very important to develop a well-defined strategy. Optimizing an e-commerce site can seem like a very difficult task, especially if you already have a store with a catalog populated by dozens of products. Yes, it can take time, but you can speed up the process with a solid strategy. How? Read on!
8 ranking factors that influence your e-commerce SEO
#1 Use quality backlinks
Backlinks are probably the decisive factor that directly influences the ranking of your content. They are the basis of Google’s ranking algorithm, as they serve to evaluate the authority of your e-commerce, and also help other users to find your content. In addition to good copywriting, you should also implement a strategy of
linkbuilding strategy
well thought out.
Quality is prioritized over quantity. While it is true that the more links you have, the better, you should focus on link building from quality, authoritative sites.
Also, be sure to remove broken links, as broken external links negatively affect the quality of a page. What can you do in this case?
To begin with, check if the URL entered is correct. Obviously, you do not have permissions to edit other websites, but you should check that the links on your website are working properly. So, if the page you are linking to shows a 404 error and your link is correct, all you have to do is contact the owner of the website in question and ask them to correct the error, or remove the broken link.
Finally, it is also essential to create internal links to better organize all the content of an e-commerce website.
#2 Choose the right keywords
Choosing the right keywords is the foundation of any effective SEO strategy. Keywords are the search terms that people use when they open a search engine to find what they need. Before you start creating content for your website, it is essential to conduct research to find the right keywords to target your content.
This research is crucial to generate articles, pages and product sheets that should then generate new traffic. The research process allows you to better understand what your audience is looking for and create content that responds directly to these search intentions.
Today, the quality of the pages that make up Google’s SERPs is also evaluated by humans, and not only by artificial intelligence. In order to climb positions and get the best possible result, Google itself publishes free guidelines so that everyone can do a good job.
These guidelines confirm that expertise,authoritativeness andtrustworthiness, also known as EAT rating (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness), are a fundamental factor in the classification of sites, especially those belonging to the financial services or health advisory category.
For this reason, it is essential to demonstrate to Google and your audience your authority in your niche. To do so, you can publish interviews, reviews and any other element that is relevant to the product or service you are selling. This way, you will be able to create excellent content and turn your e-commerce blog into a reference in its sector.
#4 Optimize e-commerce structure and UX.
Publishing new, high-quality content will have no impact on authority growth if the structure of your website is unintuitive and difficult for users and Google crawlers to navigate. For this reason, you should focus on creating a good experience for the user who browses it.
A good user experience means increasing the time spent between your pages and your products. This is also a positive signal for Google, which will understand that your site is really useful and should be rewarded with a higher position in the SERPs.
You can ensure you have an SEO friendly web structure in a few steps: building short URLs and ensuring they include keywords, implementing intuitive and simple navigation, eliminating duplicate content pages and including a sitemap.
Remember, too, that if your online store pages take too long to load, you run the risk of worsening your SERP rankings. Users expect a smooth and fast browsing experience, and any slight slowdown can lead to site abandonment. All this translates into fewer sales and purchases. How can you tell? Check your Analytics bounce rate and see if the abandonment rate is high or not.
There are many tools available on the market that allow you to check the speed of your website. Our advice is to take a look at GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights. These tools are free, easy to use and provide valuable information about the speed of your e-commerce site.
#5 Work on displaying content on mobile devices.
Google now works with mobile-first indexing, so the mobile version of many sites is considered more important and useful than the desktop version. This is natural, as more than half of all web traffic is generated through mobile devices.
To better understand if your website is up to mobile design standards and where you need to improve it, you can use Google’s mobile optimization test tool.
#6 Secure your domain
If you have not yet made the change to
http
a
https
now is definitely the time to do it. The security of your domain is related to “trust” and is one of the main factors contributing to the EAT rating that Google takes into account when ranking content. Google does not want to direct its users to a site that may not protect their data.
Of course, having an SSL certificate is essential for online stores, and in fact, it is now no longer an option even for those more general websites that collect all kinds of user data. At least for those who want to be in the first positions of the SERPs.
While we are on the subject of security, perhaps you should also use DDoS and CDN protection, but it is also a good idea to have tools that detect SMTP anomalies.
#7 Take care of local SEO
Local SEO has become increasingly important in recent years, and any business with a physical store should focus on their local SEO for best results.
A successful SEO strategy is influenced by many factors, but one of the most fundamental and simplest is to make sure that your listing on
Google My Business
is set up and optimized, and that your business information is listed correctly in the relevant local directories. Google uses this information to decide which businesses will be displayed as the top result at the top of a local search.
#8 Get the snippets
Snippets are snippets of foreground text that appear at the top of Google SERPs to quickly respond to a user’s query. They receive about 8% of all clicks related to a given search query.
There is no one way to claim a snippet, but make sure your content is high quality and relevant, so check it in Google Search Console and be consistent with publishing content if you want to increase your chances.
SEO and user experience
The user experience has become one of the fundamental factors for search engines when determining the positioning of results in the SERPs.
In fact, today more than ever, an e-commerce that offers a good user experience is appreciated not only by visitors who browse it, but also by search engines.
To this end, Google has stated that there will be three new metrics for analyzing the user experience on a website or e-commerce site:
Largest Contentful Paint
A KPI that measures how quickly a site or page loads for each user. It calculates the loading time required for the heaviest element of the page, usually a video, an image or a graphic element.
First Input Delay
A KPI that monitors the responsiveness of a page. It calculates the time that elapses between the first click and the time it takes for the browser to respond to the command.
Cumulative Layout Shift
: a KPI that measures the stability of a page. The layout is analyzed and checked for changes or modifications at each visit.
At this point it is clear that our SEO must increasingly take into account the user experience, because it is from these details that we can optimize the website of our online store and product sheets to increase visits and conversions.
Offering an optimal browsing experience not only helps users to buy more and satisfy their needs, but also favors a better positioning in all search engines.
User experience is the most important SEO trend for 2022, but to use it to your advantage and optimize sales, it is absolutely necessary to generate quality content.
Create quality content
As we have seen, Google’s new algorithms are getting smarter and taking into account much more specific ranking factors than in the past.
To climb in the SERPs today, then, it is no longer enough to publish short articles and fill them with backlinks, but quality work is necessary to produce authoritative and reliable content that brings real value to the audience.
Google’s new algorithms prefer longer and more complete content, and typically place articles and blog posts containing at least 3,000 words at the top of organic search results. According to a content marketing report published by SEMrush in 2019, long-form articles receive three times more traffic, three and a half times more
backlinks
and four times more interactions than articles with an average length of 900 to 1,200 words.
These types of articles will become increasingly important as a ranking factor in the future, making them one of the most effective SEO practices to improve your e-commerce ranking in the SERPs. Regularly producing content of 3,000 words or more may take time and money, but this activity will generate a very high return on investment.
Finally, keep in mind that SEO optimization of images and videos is also crucial for the success of your online store.
SEO for images and videos
Today, consumers increasingly rely on specialized search engines or vertical social networks to find specific products or solutions. Instead of performing a generic search, users now also look to images to view a product, or, in some cases, videos to find informative content such as unboxings, reviews and more. Images and videos have contributed to the growth of e-commerce, and optimizing images and videos is one of the best SEO practices if you want your content to reach a wider audience.
Let’s see together how to optimize these two types of content.
Image optimization
Optimizing images for search engines can increase the amount of targeted traffic to your e-commerce. Optimized images have a greater impact on Google Images and improve the organic positioning of your products in the SERPs. To optimize your images, use as much detail as possible in the alt text, so that it can also describe the content of the photo to search engines. In addition to the alternative text, you should also choose a name for each image you upload that contains the keywords. Add images to your sitemap so that search engine crawlers can find and index them more easily.
Video optimization
If you don’t yet have audiovisual content in your online store or on your social networks, you should start producing it now. Today, most consumers prefer to watch video content to learn about a product or how it works. In fact, videos are a great tool to help users make purchasing decisions and trust one store over another. Creating and optimizing video content for search engines is one of the best SEO practices for e-commerce, as it helps maximize exposure to users and increase sales for your business.
Now that you’ve discovered the advantages of videos, you’re probably wondering how to optimize your content for search engines. Right?
YouTube’s Autocomplete feature is a good place to find out what keywords and phrases users use to search for video content similar to yours. All you have to do is type the subject of your video in the search field and look at the list of
keywords
keywords that will appear to help you find the ideal phrase to describe your video.
Use these keywords and phrases in the channel and description of your video to improve search visibility.
How to position your online store
We have put together this guide to help you understand how to use SEO and why it is important for an online store. Realistically, however, it is impossible to teach everything there is to know about SEO for e-commerce in a single article. From Rodanet we have offered you an example of the work we can do for you, if you are determined to improve the positioning of your online store in search engines. If you have also realized the importance of SEO and want to optimize your e-commerce, you can contact one of our experts. Together we will find the best solution according to your needs. What are you waiting for, contactour Rodanet team!
Tamara es redactora #seo y la boxeadora de la oficina. 🥊
Siempre escribe textos con gancho 😉
