When you’re in the ecommerce SEO game and you’re on the hook for not just visits, but also revenue, you must focus on the things that will increase your traffic and conversion rate. Here are eight things to keep in mind for your ecommerce SEO that’s sure to impress your C‑suite.
Everyone is fighting tooth and nail for organic traffic these days. Organic real estate is getting smaller and smaller as search engines are integrating more rich media and PLAs into their SERPs and competition is fierce. Companies are investing more dollars in SEO than in previous years.
It’s a great time to be in the SEO industry, but it also means you have lots of eyeballs gauging your performance, so your actions need show the increased traffic payoff.
1. Responsive Design May Not Be Your Best Option
Responsive design is the trendy option when it comes to having a mobile-friendly website, and at one point Google recommended this configuration. It consolidates your code to one place, making it remarkably easy to maintain.
That said, responsive may not be an option for your ecommerce site; it’s a big undertaking that would require a full site rebuild, and it might not even increase your conversion rates.
People shop differently on mobile than they do on desktop; just rearranging the same content to fit a small screen won’t necessarily provide the best customer experience.
Before you go through a full responsive design build, consider other options like dynamic serving that would allow you to better tailor your mobile experience.
2. Optimize Product Names
Most of your organic search traffic will likely enter on category pages or product listing pages since they hold the bulk of keyword search volume, but your product pages are key entry points for those users who know exactly what they want and are ready to convert.
Include key differentiating features and functions, like brand, dimensions, color, shape or even the location the product is used.
Just including these attributes isn’t enough, though. Proper placement is critical in your product names and could account for a substantial search volume difference.
3. Write Unique Product Descriptions
The product descriptions your manufactures give you aren’t going to cut it. For one, they’re typically not written well and don’t help customers make a purchasing decision. Secondly, they give the same description to all their retailers, so you’ll be fighting some duplicate content problems.
There’s really no way around it: Each of your products need unique descriptions. It’s a lot of content to write, yes, but it’s a one-time effort output that will give you a healthier site in the long run.
4. Index Your Product Reviews
Another way to boost your product pages content is making sure all of your customer reviews are search-friendly and indexable. Avoid using JavaScript, Flash or iFrames in your reviews since that makes it harder or impossible for search engines to read that content.
Having these ratings and reviews will also help move your customers through the path of purchase; 63 percent of customers read online reviews before making a purchasing decision, according to an iPerceptions study.
5. Keep Internal Linking Consistent
Consistent internal linking is a struggle for every site, but ecommerce sites get it worse because there are usually many different ways to get to products.
The biggest offender is internal search. If other teams (or even your users) need a link to a list of products, more likely than not they’ll do an internal search for that product and pull that URL.
The problem? Your internal search pages are most likely noindexed to avoid duplicate content (if not, they should be). So not only will that link not provide any value to your main navigation link, but you’re giving search engines mixed signals.
It’s easier to maintain consistency with your internal links, but the same principle goes for any content marketing or link building campaigns you’re running. The ranking URL should be the linking URL, and it should be the one in your HTML and XML sitemap, too.
6. Redirected Expired/Discounted Products
Products aren’t going to live forever; that’s just the nature of the beast with ecommerce sites. Newer models and styles come out and the older versions aren’t sold anymore, but that doesn’t mean those product URLs lose their SEO value when the product is no longer around.
Don’t delete those URLs; 301 redirect them to the newer model or the parent category. But, don’t redirect products that are simply out of stock and will be replenished later.
7. Implement Schema Markup On Your Product Pages
Schema.org markup helps search engines interpret what your data means and then displaying that data directly in the SERP. For ecommerce sites, that means displaying things like price, start rating, and number of reviews.
Schema markup will help your website rank higher, and it also makes your SERP listing more attractive to your users, increasing your CTR.
8. Compare Internal Search Keywords With External Search Keywords
Google keywords aren’t the only keywords that matter when it comes to SEO. While organic search probably drives a significant portion of your traffic – Conductor says that organic search is responsible for 64 percent of your web traffic – as many as 30 percent of your users use internal search when they to your site and they’re 70 percent more likely to convert.
Don’t just track site search behavior to capture what keywords they’re typing in; use the internal search keywords in conjunction with your external keyword research data. You’ll be able to find potential untapped opportunities and discover what people are having a hard time finding on your site.