Whether you’re in the early stages of a start-up business or perhaps already running an established one but in want of a more appealing and stable online presence, you should consider eCommerce SEO.
What Is eCommerce SEO?
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In this modern age, eCommerce SEO (search engine optimization) is the stepping stone to increasing your online store’s visibility in the SERPs or search engine results pages. The goal is for your products or services to grace the top of the SERPs for a higher click rate and more traffic from potential clients. While paid search can also do the trick, choosing eCommerce SEO services is considerably more cost-efficient.
The popularity of eCommerce has been sky-high over the decades, and, consequently, acquisition costs have also skyrocketed along with it. While online retailers were once able to generate new customers without breaking the bank during the process, the competitive landscape has both motivated and obligated eCommerce marketers to provide high-scale channels with reasonable rates.
And up to this very day, eCommerce SEO has proven to be a low-cost yet efficient business strategy that has left many businesses still standing high and firmly anchored. It is only wise and practical to follow, suit and keep your business stable and to thrive through SEO.
Here are some valuable tips on undertaking an SEO action plan for growing your store:
Start By Creating a Specific KEYWORD Plan
Google happens to serve a relevant search results rate of 80,000 users per second. The giant search engine is designed to select the best pages that fit most accurately to the users’ search intent, based on their specific search queries. In SEO terms, such search queries are referred to as “keywords”.
SEO specialists say that there are three keyword categories according to each user’s intent:
- Commercial keywords: Indicating to buy a product.
- Informational keywords: Indicating learning about a certain topic.
- Navigational keywords: Indicating to find a specific brand or location.
Your chosen SEO team will then categorize the keywords you provide, highlight the keywords your competitors use, and then organize them by volume and cost per click (CPC) according to your interests and priorities.
Intent Optimization Is the Key
You can effectively optimize your pages by paying close attention to keyword search ‘intent.’ Critical to Google’s user service and satisfaction, ‘intent’ basically identifies the user’s purpose, reason, and motive behind a search query. Remember that commercial keywords most likely have high CPC and thus have better conversion. SEO specialists generally optimize your pages by adding selected keywords into your page title and copy.
Improve User Experience By Fixing Usability Issues
In Google, user experience (UX) is considered a ranking factor. Zappos and Amazon are two examples of great success in this context since the user experience of both eCommerce giants let them rank high. By eliminating complex shopping processes and confusing elements and providing a smoother shopping experience, your traffic and consequently your conversions will dramatically improve.
To improve UX, track your visitors’ behaviour by:
- Session recording tools, which record random visitors’ activities in your store.
- Quantitative analytics tools, which identify the pages from where your visitors most often leave (also called exit pages).
- Qualitative analytics tools, which often come in the form of online feedback forms.
Make Use of HTTPS
Aside from flawless user experience, security is an equally important aspect of your eCommerce SEO strategy that should never be overlooked. HTTP is the key protocol for exchanging data between a user (browser) and a server (store). Security-wise, HTTPS (or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a notch above HTTP. It provides a safer environment for data submissions, communication and financial transactions. HTTPS is a cost-efficient necessity for improving your store’s performance.
Create Compelling Meta Descriptions
A meta description refers to an HTML meta tag that describes the content of a page. Shown underneath the title and URL of a page, meta descriptions appear in all search engine results.
Keep in mind that your meta description is almost as good as a mini ad. Therefore, it is imperative that you try to make it sound as natural as possible without seeming like an obvious sales pitch. On the other hand, being subtle doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be specific, especially when showcasing the benefits of your product or service.
When creating a meta description, make sure to answer your users’ usual and obvious queries. Adding a keyword is another useful tip. While it may not help you with SEO, doing so allows your meta description to be highlighted by Google whenever a user makes that specific keyword search.
Develop and Establish Your Brand Before Link Building
eCommerce is a highly lucrative and competitive industry. Thus, you must try to build a household name that will stand out and endure the proverbial marathon. Once you’ve defined and established your brand, you can improve search engine visibility by building backlinks or one-way hyperlinks. This link building strategy gives Google a better understanding of your page’s authority and value. Higher authority equals a higher rank for your page.
Build Your Linkerati Empire
“Linkerati” refers to the people who link to your sites, such as bloggers, journalists, and industry experts. So it should be the linkerati you should be thinking about when creating content. After all, they will be the ones to decide whether your content is share-worthy or not.
Create a database of potential linkerati, complete with their names and necessary demographic data. Browse through their social profiles and research what keywords your target linkerati usually uses. Check out their following and take note of their interests, expressions, and problems. In this way, you can create target-specific content to build links faster instead of pitching your content whimsically.
Take Action!
After having polished your action plan, the final step is implementation. No matter how perfect your SEO strategy may appear, no progress will come of it unless you take the first step. If, however, you happen to lack the time or the confidence to tackle SEO on your own, fret not. There are many eCommerce SEO services out there to take the burden from your shoulders and walk you through the complexities of SEO and towards business growth, progress and success.
