SEO Best Practices For E-Commerce Websites in 2024 – Over the next 10 – 15 years, more than 90% of all purchases are expected to happen online, through approximately 20 million E-commerce websites all over the internet, a lot of which are E-commerce-only.
Imagine the intensity of the battle to push through the noise and make yourself be seen and preferred by a discerning customer!
Up until a few years ago, having a well-designed E-commerce website, a few good products with stellar descriptions, and a smooth payment setup were sufficient to get sales. Now, with the popularity of online shopping having increased tenfold, and with more brands amping up their digital stores, these elements have become the bare minimum through which you can at best establish a near-stagnant digital presence. To rack in traffic and increase sales, you have to make strategic moves and make yourself seen by the right audience.
This is where SEO shines.
What is E-commerce SEO?
E-commerce SEO essentially involves practices to make your online store appear on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). It is typically used to improve visibility on popular search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and it takes care of various aspects of an online store including the product titles, product descriptions, headlines, metadata, internal link structures, ease of navigation, etc.
You ideally need an optimized page for every product on your website, so that it draws traffic from search engines when people enter the product name or other related keywords.
In addition to the product pages, other static pages that are a part of the website, such as the home page, the blog page, the FAQs page, the contact page, and the like, also need to be optimized for visibility.
An E-commerce website optimized for search engines is a sure-fire way to get inbound leads and conversions, for FREE. While running ads can boost the visibility and awareness of your website to a great extent, it is considered a complementary effort meant to support other powerful marketing campaigns, much like SEO campaigns. Plus, it undoubtedly comes at a cost.
SEO on the other hand is worth much more value, both long-term and short-term.
Our team of experts in SEO services in Chicago swears by these 6 amazing SEO best practices to improve visibility and sales for E-commerce websites.
Find the Right Keywords
Finding the right keywords is at the heart of an effective SEO strategy; it gives your efforts direction and purpose. Many marketers do preliminary research or use tools blindly to find a few keywords and call it a day. However, to make your E-commerce SEO strategy work to its true potential, you need to spend time researching and finding the accurate keywords to target.
Narrow down the most relevant keywords for your products, analyze the search volumes for each, and examine the cost-per-click, and other crucial metrics to determine whether a keyword may be worth targeting. Analyze what your competitors are using as well to gain a clearer picture.
E-commerce websites typically rank well for long-tailed keywords, that is, keywords that are more specific and not generic. For example, “bedsheets” vs. “floral bedsheets on sale”. Incorporate these keywords in your anchor text as well as product copy and ensure that the page is easy to navigate.
Adopt a clean and friendly structure, optimized for search engines as well as users
Speaking of navigation, the second-most crucial factor affecting your rankings is the ease of usage of your website. Ensure a clean and straightforward design with fewer complicated elements. Most importantly, make your product page accessible within three clicks or less from the home page. This will improve the chances of visitors sticking around within your website and not lead them to leave prematurely.
Additionally, ensure that there are easy navigation options for visitors to easily look through, for example, sliders for “similar products” or “products to style with” etc. This will help retain customers for longer and perhaps lead them to purchase.
Our experts in SEO services in Chicago can help you create user-friendly pages with elements and text that are easier for search engines to analyze and index as well.
Put sufficient thought into creating unique and engaging product descriptions
The product descriptions are not meant to be filler content. They need to be crafted cleverly in thoughtful and engaging ways to resonate with the customer. Incorporate a full description including details like color, dimensions, uses, features, instructions, availability, and size. Include additional tips, tricks, ways to style, etc. to help customers make the most of the product.
Content on the product and product category pages must include the relevant keywords. Include a call to action as well in the description to direct customers to buy the product.
Focus on Improving the Site Loading Speed
The site loading speed is something that digital entrepreneurs overlook, especially when they pick up traction. Your website must ideally be built on an easily scalable platform, which you can optimize as you start attracting more traffic. Not paying attention to the load capacity can cause your website pages to buffer or take a long time to load, ultimately leading to bounces.
Another aspect to keep in mind is an equally optimal load time on mobile devices. A site that is not mobile-optimized can cause undue loading issues, alignment issues, and navigation issues on a mobile device. Remember that the majority of customers access E-commerce websites on a mobile device.
Build Robust Site Security
An E-commerce website inevitably deals with a large number of users and their personal information, including payment details. It also facilitates thousands of transactions on a daily basis. Hence it is crucial to maintain a high level of security on the website. More so considering the rapidly increasing cyber threats today. Optimum site security is one of the main ranking factors for search engines as well.
Hence, ensure the highest level of security for your E-commerce website, pay close attention to the validities and renewal requirements of SSL certifications, back up the data, and use encryptions for payment pages or other pages requiring personal information.
Professionals in SEO services in Chicago can help you nail the security requirements for your website, and boost your chances for organic ranking.
Maintain a Clear and Seamless Internal Linking Structure
A clear and easily comprehendible internal linking structure not only guides and directs the customers to move within the website, but also lets search engines know that your website is user-friendly. It leads customers to navigate seamlessly from one page to another, thereby increasing the time they spend on the site. This in turn makes search engines prioritize your website as it infers the increased user times as a sign of credibility and quality. Hence, ensure to link similar products, related blog articles, complementary products and offer pages carefully within the product pages.
Wrapping up
There is much more to E-commerce sales than uploading good-quality product pictures and adding descriptions. In today’s age, it is all about tactfully analyzing target customer needs and preferences and leveraging the insights to create product pages that will organically lead visitors to make a purchase. And this involves optimizing everything from the product copy to the navigation elements to the security features so that your product appears exactly where customers look for them – on a search engine results page.
This is why E-commerce SEO is a separate realm of optimization that requires deep analysis and careful deliberation. At DM360, we have a dedicated team of experts in SEO services in Chicago for E-commerce websites to help owners optimize their presence and improve their visibility.
If you have a stellar website with high-quality products but no real traffic, hit us up today. We can help you turn things around.
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