In 2021, over 2.14 billion consumers are expected to purchase products and services online, globally. This figure is up from 1.66 billion global digital buyers from 2016, according to a report published by Statista. Thus, it becomes necessary to analyze and understand e-commerce website SEO to mark its presence in the market easily.

What’s more interesting is that, in 2023, e-commerce retail purchases, specifically, are expected to rise from 14.1% to 22%. As more and more e-commerce websites get launched every day, they will need to gear up their strategies to attract consumers and stay ahead of the competition. 

In this scenario, there is a great reason to invest in SEO to push traffic to your e-commerce website. This is because it is a proven fact that a well-crafted SEO plan delivers the highest Return On Investment (ROI).

Yet, millions of e-commerce websites do not pay attention to this aspect of the business. 

Due to the lack of awareness and expertise, they follow poor SEO hygiene practices. Secondly, instead of investing money in e-commerce website SEO, they spend it on paid social media marketing, which does not always provide the returns they seek. It is difficult to track the return on investment with this approach.

On the other hand, e-commerce website SEO leaves a digital trail that helps you track the number of consumers that come directly through SEO, the number of sales that have been triggered, and how much revenue has been generated.  

As search engines keep updating their algorithms, any e-commerce website SEO strategy needs a combination of experience and innovation for the website to stay ahead of the curve.

Investing in SEO from the onset of the launch of your e-commerce platform will pay rich dividends in the long-term. If you have been online for some time and are not seeing the results, bolstering up your e-commerce website SEO can still help you shift the business outcomes to meet your revenue goals.

Here are the Following Steps to Ace e-Commerce Website SEO

Here are some ground rules to keep your e-commerce website SEO consistently fresh and relevant.  

Step 1: Identify The Right Keywords

Selecting the right keywords is both an art and a science. It boils down to superior research as well as keeping an eye on the usage of keywords by competitors. By strategically targeting keywords, you can raise traffic to your e-commerce website and see more conversion of online traffic into sales. 

Considering a combination of the relevancy of the keyword to your product or service, the number of people who are searching for it as well as the rankings is an ideal good mix. They cannot work in isolation. 

For example, using a very generic keyword will mean that your e-commerce website will face too much competition from other e-commerce websites in search rankings, manufacturers, and other similar businesses. The key is to identify keywords that are relevant, unique, and yet searched-for, for the best results. 

This list can then be used in all the key areas such as the homepage, all page titles, heads and sub-heads, image file names, meta titles and descriptions, URLs, product descriptions, and product copy. 

Step 2: Building Quality Blog Content 

Once the keywords are identified and leveraged on the homepage and product pages, it is a good idea to launch a blog that personifies your e-commerce brand, and what it offers. This is an important step in strategizing SEO for e-commerce websites. 

However, this initiative needs a slightly differentiated strategy.

Consumers read blogs that are unique, serve their interests, and also help them find what they are looking for. Hence, the scope of keywords needs to expand beyond the existing ones to include additional words or specific phrases that consumers are using in their searches, but which do not have too many existing content options.

Crafting well-researched, relevant, consumable blogs need attention, research, and curation. The articles should follow the guidelines that will push algorithms to rank them higher. They must also connect the dots between what consumers are searching for online, and the products and services being offered by your e-commerce platform. 

Be careful never to “stuff” the blog posts with keywords, a gimmick that will result in lowering the chances of discoverability of your website on searches. Search algorithms are able to detect such practices and penalize the defaulting websites, which will result in a lower ranking.

While it is important to drive traffic to your website and products, linking to external websites such as credible media platforms, will also help influence overall search rankings. 

Step 3: Build Credibility With Links 

Effective link-building within your website, and beyond is an important step in e-commerce website SEO. 

Crafting content on your blog that educates users on specific products and services. How they can improve the quality of your life, or meet your goals. It is a great way to showcase the products and services in a subtle manner. In turn, linking back to the product pages will nudge consumers to the products offered on your platform, in a subtle way. 

Since this content is so valuable, links to these pages can also be featured on external websites that are connected to your offerings. Make sure the external websites are high on credibility. They do not feature any spammy content, have sizable traffic, and are visited by relevant audiences. 

It is also a good idea to roll out a structured program with bloggers and social media influencers who can feature links to your blog or products in their content. 

Step 4: Pay Attention To The Details 

Sometimes even websites with quality blog content, and homepage and product page, content miss out on certain types of content. 

For example, URLs should not only have real words, preferably the keywords, but they should also be framed in a way that communicates to a potential consumer. Untidy URLs are a turn-off, they negatively impact SEO rankings, and lower the credibility of your website. 

Pay as much attention to the meta title and descriptions, which should communicate what the product or content is about. They should not read like a jumble of words. These are the pieces that appear on search rankings, and they must inspire consumers to click on them.

However, avoid keyword stuffing at all costs, as this reduces rankings. 

As the click-through rate of your pages increases, your website’s search rankings will also increase. 

Step 5: Prioritize Your Top-Selling Products/Services 

At some point, you will need to make some tough decisions. Such as which products and services to focus on more instead of spreading your efforts in all directions. When you continuously optimize every product in your catalog, this can result in your top-selling products not showing up on Page 1 of the search. 

Low rankings can result in less qualified traffic to your website and fewer sales. 

Hence, instead of trying to optimize every product or service, you can direct more efforts towards the ones that are most in-demand with your consumers. Only then, shift your efforts towards the lower-selling products and services.

From a revenue perspective, this approach tends to yield more results, when it comes to your e-commerce website SEO.

Step 6: Fix Any Dead Pages 

Millions of e-commerce websites end up having error pages, duplicate pages, and redirects.

These glitches reflect poorly on the credibility of the brand.

You also end up losing precious traffic that could have converted into revenue. By fixing these issues, you will reduce the number of missed opportunities and derive a higher ROI on your SEO efforts. 

It is also important to consistently update the content on various pages, including meta titles and descriptions. 

Step 7: Optimize Page Load Speeds 

No matter how great the content on your blog is, or the quality of your products and services are, if your website pages load slowly, your traffic will drop off. 

Today, consumers have no dearth of e-commerce options. Typically, they expect pages to load in less than two seconds! So pay attention to this factor, and ensure that this isn’t a killer for your e-commerce business today. 

Secondly, the number of people accessing e-commerce websites via mobile is increasing. Therefor, this trend will only accelerate as more consumers get access to mobiles. Pages must load as quickly on mobiles, and be optimized for them.

You can optimize image sizes, leverage the best CMS and also buy more server space if required. 

Web page speeds greatly impact search engine rankings. Hence, this is a key factor to be kept in mind during the e-commerce Website SEO process. 

Step 8: Review Your Website Structure

The information architecture of your e-commerce business must be designed in a way that helps consumers navigate the website with ease. They must be able to locate content easily. In addition to that, can also search for what they are looking for within the website, with stealth.

Flat structures are becoming more popular as consumers want to find what they are looking for in a maximum of three clicks. Categorization of all products and services in a smart, seamless way, enables quick searches even faster. It is also important to use keywords in your architecture design. This can further bolster search rankings. 

To help consumers easily find what they are looking for within your website. So, you can also consider adding a search engine within the site for better search capabilities. It takes less than five minutes to integrate such a service on your website, but the results tend to translate quickly. 

The information architecture of your e-commerce website is extremely important. As it directly impacts your SEO rankings, and in turn, web traffic and revenue. Hence, pay attention early on while building your website, and also in the case you’re orchestrating a redesign. 

Partnering with the right software development company to keep your product fresh and relevant to your audience is a great idea. 

Step 9: Build A Phenomenal User Experience 

With the advent of smart devices, consumer expectations of the websites or apps  have risen. It is important to recognize this trend and offer a user experience that truly delights and wows consumers. This will have them consistently coming back for more and becoming a loyal consumer of your brand.

A great consumer experience is a product of multiple factors coming together – colors, look & feel of the website, eye-catching imagery, quick access, and other quirky features. So spend a good amount of time focusing on this aspect. Getting this right can be overwhelming for any e-commerce entrepreneur.

Luckily, the market offers competitively priced, top-notch custom software development companies that can help you with your product development. Along with the user experience needs, leaving you focused on building a successful business.

Another hygiene factor is to add your social media buttons on your website. However, this make it easy for consumers to share a product, service, blog page, or any other piece of interesting content. 

Also, make sure your social media is optimized for SEO and is updated on a regular basis. The social media content often says a lot about the brand and its appeal. 

Step 10: Celebrate Awesome Customer Reviews

Consumers are queens and authentic consumer reviews always entice consumers to make a purchase in seconds. They could be in the form of text or a rating system.

Nudge consumers to post reviews in a way that makes it really easy and exciting. You can also link this to a loyalty program that incentivizes them to post their review and do it with more enthusiasm.

You can also have an automated email sent out to your consumers after they purchase a product or service. Thus, thanking them, and inviting them to post a review. This creates goodwill while also serving your business needs. 

According to PeopleClaim, 70% of customers consult reviews or ratings before making a final purchase. Hence, if you haven’t set this up already, do it right away!

Just make sure it is not a paid activity, as in that case, it loses all credibility. 

Step 11: Partner With The Right Agencies 

Today, e-commerce website SEO is considered to be a specialized activity. It needed to backed by solid expertise, an innovative and strategic mindset. Thus, the knowledge of the latest tools that can be leveraged for success.

Building a business is not an easy task, and it is advisable to outsource this important activity and leverage the e-commerce website SEO services of a specialist agency. Similarly, you can outsource your product development and user interface needs to software companies that deliver great value at a competitive price. 

Conclusion

With all agencies to ensure their credentials and successful case studies. Evaluate the backgrounds of the team members who will work on your project, as you want the most value for your investment. 

Taking this important step leaves you with more time to focus on your business. However, the specialists have you covered from an SEO standpoint and other specialized needs. Now, aiming to develop a SEO-friendly website or mobile application, then Supersourcing can be the most appropriate platform you. Here, we can help and guide you in getting the right and expert agency based on your requirements.