SEO is one facet of eCommerce that cannot be neglected. It allows search engines to easily crawl your website, show which keywords you want to rank for, and displays your site’s authority through high-quality content and backlinks.
There are certain SEO measures that you can take that will enhance your eCommerce performance and give your site a well-deserved boost in the SERP. To help get you started on enhancing your eCommerce performance, take a look at these five key tips.
A Unique Title Tag
The title tag is one of the most essential SEO elements in your campaign, and each one you create should be unique to each product page. The optimal format for a product page’s title tag should include the product name, targeted keyword, and the brand name. If your brand name is not yet widely known, we suggest including the brand name at the end of your title tag.
Take a look at Neuro XPF’s title tag in the image below. This is a prime illustration of their own tactic using their keyword and product name, followed by their brand name.
By using modifiers such as “Sale”, “Free Shipping”, “Buy”, or “X% Off” you can help your title tag stand out amongst the Search Engine Results Page (SERP.) This will give you a greater chance in increasing your click-through rate (CTR.)
Conduct In-Depth Keyword Research
Keywords are not guessed at random. Instead, they require detailed research into what you believe your customer base is searching for. These keywords are critical in influencing every SEO optimization you implement. This could range from your site’s architecture to the structure of a single webpage. In the same sense as your title tag, each keyword should be unique to each page, and not duplicated across multiple locations.
The following keyword criteria are essential to any eCommerce website:
- Adequate search volume
- Low competition
- The ability to rank
- Emphasis on the product
- Prospect of conversion
Ideally, you will want to target keywords that have a high search volume which will convert customers. In terms of your products, the keywords should be comprised of bottom-of-the-funnel-type “buying” phrases that are targeted at users who are further along the funnel and thus ready to purchase.
So as to not waste any of your efforts, it is important to always check the SERP during keyword research for whether or not you even have a chance at ranking. This will help you see whether a certain keyword is dominated by a large company such as Amazon. If this is the case, then you should look for less competitive keywords to target.
For example, Neuro XPF has chosen the keyword phrase, “CBD Oil Drops” as the designated keyword for the title tag as shown below.
Neuro XPF has chosen this tactic because the keywords “CBD Oil” and “CBD drops” either present a SERP that is entirely made up of editorial content (top-of-the-funnel material) or a SERP that is too competitive for the business to possibly make headway. As an eCommerce website, their main goal is to sell products and convert potential buyers. So selecting a keyword that will serve a SERP composed predominantly of editorial results will not be of much value to Neuro XPF nor will aiming for a keyword that will take far too much time and effort to be worth targeting.
Leveraging Product Review Schema for Rich Results in the SERP
eCommerce websites have a unique opportunity to get one of the most eye-catching, rich snippets out there: reviews. But how do you get these much sought after, rich snippets? You can do this by implementing schema markup on your eCommerce product pages.
The schema is a special code that gives search engines (such as Google and Bing) a deeper understanding of your page’s content. To implement schema, use popular plugins depending on your CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress and Shopify. Alternatively, you can mark-up your product pages yourself, using the structured data markup helper, courtesy Google.
Website Architecture
A website’s structure dictates how users interact with your websites. It is pivotal in having a successful eCommerce store, as a website that is difficult to navigate will prevent users from finding what they need.
“Site structure” refers to how you organize your website’s content. A website often consists of content on a variety of related topics, presented on posts and pages alike. Site structure deals with how this content is grouped, linked, and presented to the visitor. If you structure your website well, it will benefit from this. Users will be able to find their way more easily and Google can better index your URLs. Taxonomies such as categories and tags, internal links and your site’s navigation create breadcrumbs that will offer structure to your site.
As you begin to write more and more blog posts and add more product pages, your site will start to get cluttered. You will need to neatly organize it and make sure that you, your visitors, and Google will be able to find what they’re looking for.
The most important things to keep in mind while setting up the structure and hierarchy of an eCommerce site is, first, to keep things simple and scalable. Then, making sure that every page is never more than three clicks from your home page.
The structure is a guide for Google and Search Engines and for the user’s experience (UX.) IT should be reflected in the navigation of your website and, if it is clear, will enable your audience to easily find their way around your website. A good UX will increase your chances for people to convert: buy your products, subscribe to your products, or return for another visit. And Google likes sites that perform well too!
Due to the fact that UX metrics have become more important for SEO, making sure that your user experience is optimal will increase your chances for ranking. Reducing bounce-rate and increasing time-on-site are critical user engagement metrics.
Use Unique and Informative Product Page Descriptions
Google wants to understand what your page is all about. The more content you provide, the better Google can do its job. Plus, in-depth product page content (meaning, more than 1,000 words and the inclusion of keywords) helps customers understand what they’re about to buy. That way, there’s a user experience benefit too!
It might be impossible for you to write 1,000 words for every single page on your site, and that’s ok. If this is the case, we recommend writing long, in-depth product descriptions for the top 10-50 most important product and category pages. Once you’ve written your in-depth product description, it will be time to make sure that you’ve used your target keywords between three to five times in your content.
All of this information can seem quite daunting, but once you start implementing it, you’ll realize that it becomes second nature. With some time and effort, you’ll be pleased to see all your hard work finally showing some results and it will all be worth it.
Elena Goodson – I am a social media manager and content creator at New Dimension Marketing and Research.
Outside of work, I also am a stand-up comedian and run my own website, Slow Boat Library. I speak five languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Arabic) and studied marketing, communications, and journalism in more than six countries in Europe and the Middle East.
SEO Tips for eCommerce Performance
Understanding eCommerce presented by Digital Media Marketing
