Ecommerce as an industry is expected to top $6.5 billion by 2023, and that’s with the Coronavirus crisis throwing a lot of our plans into disarray.
At first sight, this is the best opportunity.
A growing industry with tons of services to help you set-up shop online.
So, what are you waiting for?
Well, the growing trend and monopolised reality of eCommerce also means that there’s a lot of competition out there.
So you’ll have to pick your battles carefully. Especially if you want to grow your organic traffic.
On-page SEO helps you with that.
But on-page SEO is complicated.
However, it’s a good start, so let’s take a look at the best techniques in on-page SEO for eCommerce.
Keyword research means finding the terms your potential customers use to find your products.
And optimising your content:
To better meet customer demand.
So the first step is to map your site.
Have a clear overview of all products and pages.
And start looking for the right keywords for each of them.
Let’s say you sell men’s clothing. It might be tough to rank that product for one of these terms:
The SD metric indicates how hard it will be to rank for that keyword
So what you can do is insert the seed keyword (in this case, men’s clothing) into a keyword research tool like ahrefs, KWFinder, or Ubersuggest, and choose the keyword with less competition:
In this case, the first results can’t be used for an eCommerce site. You’ll have to dig deeper.
You can also add modifiers to your seed keyword based on the particularities of your product.
Do this process of digging for a “keyword gem” for all of your products and pages, and then use that keyword in the title of your product, and in the description, as naturally as you can.
As you can see, it works for product category pages too.
You can also use this process to optimize your content marketing efforts (more about that in a bit).
And, depending on the keyword research tool you use, you can also find commercial keywords.
For that, simply insert the same seed keyword, but look for a “filters” or “modifiers” tab.
With Ubersuggest, you can only use predetermined filters, not custom modifiers.
With custom modifiers, simply add words like “buy” “reviews” “price” and the like to your seed keyword.
Google needs clarity when indexing and ranking your site.
And you want to make it as easy as possible for their bots to analyse your site.
To do that, you should use the right headers to segment your data.
Use H1 for your product title, and then H2 and H3 for additional details like “Product Description” and “All Features”.
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s extremely important to make sure all of your pages have a clear structure. On top, it’s important to make sure all of your product pages have extensive details on what you’re selling, including:
So segment data and keywords based on a clear structure.
Similarly, you should have clear metadata for your pages – take the quick description of the product (which should contain the main keyword identified earlier) and use it as a meta description of the page. That’s what bots see, and that’s what will be displayed on the SERP:
Although it doesn’t look like much, this description is crucial.
It should help Google bots understand what the page is about, so keywords present as soon as possible are important.
But that’s not it.
This description should also be written flawlessly since it’s what will convince people to click on the result and see your site…
Or not.
So take your time with it.
By that, we mean to start a blog and employ content marketing best practices to at least convert website visitors into email subscribers, if not customers right away.
Do the same keyword research as before, but not to find product titles.
Instead, use it to find topics to write exhaustive pieces on – like the article you’re reading right now.
Besides what we showed you so far, most keyword research tools also have “Questions” or “Suggestions” tab:
Use that to find better topics for your articles.
For the seed keyword, use topics from your niche. For example, if you sell alcoholic products, start writing about the history of different beverages or cocktail recipes. You want to educate your audience with these pieces, optimise them with keyword research and a clear structure and metadata, but you also want to make them enticing enough as to incentivize a buying decision.
If you create a killer mojito recipe, fine-tuned with the right images and videos…
You’ll get people in the mood for a mojito.
And luckily enough… you’ve got the ingredients.
Google wants people that end up on your site, from their SERP, to be happy.
To find answers. To find products.
And keep using their platform as much as possible.
So that means that any SEO effort should be focused on the user. Aim to keep them happy, and Google will be happy too.
But that’s especially important for on-page SEO, because this is where the user experience magic happens.
So let’s cover some elements.
First, include multimedia content.
Images and videos convert better because they show your product in action and inspire buying decisions.
Not to mention, Google knows this and ranks pages with multimedia content higher.
Second, improve your overall user experience. Reduce loading time with GTMetrix.
Insert a search bar to help your users find products faster.
Have an accessible cart system.
And ensure smooth navigation of pages. Double-check your internal links and make sure all pages are in place.
Speaking of internal links: use them with recommended products.
Recommended products help you upsell customers, and they help Google better index your site.
Lastly, create well-optimised sales pages.
Here’s why that matters:
Google tracks everything your visitors do, including the personal data they willingly fill in on your platform.
If they’re willing to share login credentials and credit card numbers with your platform, that tells Google your site is trustworthy.
That on-page SEO is just a piece of the puzzle.
To boost your bottom line and customer base, you need to do more. If you have an affiliate website or want to work with someone to promote your products, make sure you check out these successful affiliate websites examples.
But what you read today is a good starting point. On-page SEO for eCommerce helps, and we hope you have a pretty good picture of what to focus on next. If you still need some help, make sure you check out our on-page SEO checklist.
Our SEO Agency in Melbourne in Melbourne likes helping online businesses grow their platform, so we want your input down below.
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