Neil Patel

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The Ultimate Guide to SEO for E-commerce Websites

text "ultimate guide to SEO for e-commerce" on orange background

If you’re selling products and want to reach the widest audience possible, having a well-optimized e-commerce website is an absolute must.

Why? Well, there are several benefits to having an online store.

The most obvious reason to have an online store is to take advantage of the rapid growth of e-commerce worldwide. The value of total e-commerce sales has soared from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to 5.7 trillion in 2022. By 2026, Statista predicts total sales will be worth $8 trillion

bar chart of ecommerce sales by year

An e-commerce store can significantly grow your customer base, making it possible for people from all over to buy your products. Given that so many more people shop online today, an e-commerce website can also make up for falling foot traffic.

But that’s not all. An e-commerce website can also help you learn more about your customers.

By installing an analytics tool like GA4, you can discover your customers’ demographics: locations, age, and even how they found you. 

Whether you already have an e-commerce store or you want to create one, you need to take steps to ensure it’s as visible as possible.

How do you do that? It’s simple enough: with  SEO for e-commerce

Key Takeaways 

  • With the value of total e-commerce sales expected to reach $8 trillion by 2026, there is a great deal of opportunity for your retail business to grow.
  • According to Capital One, there are tens of millions of online retail stores which means competition is fierce.
  • SEO can help your e-commerce website to rank higher in search engine results which, in turn, increases website visitors and conversions.
  • A few e-commerce SEO best practices include product page optimization, the use of long-tail keywords, a simple URL structure, and link building.

What Is SEO for E-Commerce?

SEO for e-commerce is a strategy that helps web retailers rank higher in search engine results. A well-designed and optimized website with high-quality content will rank better in search engines such as Google, increasing your store’s visibility and driving traffic. 

In other words, SEO for e-commerce concentrates on optimizing your site, which makes it easier to get leads and conversions.

However, unlike SEO for content-focused websites, SEO for e-commerce websites is more than just adding keywords, writing blog posts, and gaining links. You need to understand how search engines work and what they reward.

That means having a working knowledge of SEO for e-commerce, considering Google’s guidelines, analyzing buyer intent, and implementing it strategically. 

E-Commerce SEO Best Practices 

SEO for online retailers is a complex field. With tens of millions of online retail sites in existence, it’s not always easy to make your site stand out. 

While increasing your SEO rankings might seem like a huge challenge, you can make a positive start by applying the best practices I outline below.

If you haven’t optimized your e-commerce website at all, I highly recommend working through this guide in order. If you have optimized your site in the past, then feel free to implement my advice as you wish. 

Ready? Then let’s learn how to do SEO for e-commerce.

1. Perform Keyword Research the Right Way 

If there’s one thing absolutely every e-commerce business owner should do, it’s perform in-depth keyword research for their store.

Your goal should be twofold.

First, you want to find the most relevant and popular keywords in your niche. Second, you must understand the buyer intent behind each keyword. 

Keyword intent is the aim behind a search query. You can identify it by looking at the specific phrases people use when looking for an item online and the results shown by Google.

There are two main types of keyword intent you’ll see most often.

Informational Keyword Intent

Informational keyword intent is when users search for an answer to a question or to understand a topic in more detail.

They aren’t quite looking to make a purchase yet. Instead, they might want to understand your niche in better detail or get an answer to a question that isn’t related to a product. For instance, if you owned an outdoor clothing store, an informational keyword might be something like: “best hikes near San Francisco.”

Commercial Keyword Intent

Commercial keyword intent is when people are looking for information to help them make a purchase.

Consumers typically use commercial keyword intents when they know what they want but don’t know where to find it yet. You see this when you’re typing specific terms into Google, like “buy digital camera” or “find new laptop deals.”

But they may also use commercial intent keywords when they don’t know which product they want to purchase. Review-based queries are a great example of commercial keywords, for example: “What is the best digital camera?”

Determining Keyword Intent

Deciding consumers’ keyword intent seems challenging, but you can make it easier on yourself. This can be broken down into 3 primary stages.

  1. Analyzing SERPs: Pay special attention to paid ads, knowledge graph results, and organic listings.
  2. Look at Google ads for commercial intent: Seeing bid prices for keywords gives an idea of how competitive keywords are.
  3. Review your analytics: Look for content with high bounce rates as it may mean it doesn’t match with search intent.

To determine the right keyword mix for your site, though, you’re going to need support. Let’s talk about a couple of tools that can power your search for SEO e-commerce keywords. 

Using Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic for SEO E-Commerce Research

While Google’s keyword planner is an effective start, you may want more depth or specialized support to build out your keyword targets. Here’s a closer look into some of the other options that can help you build your target keywords for your SEO e-commerce strategy:

Ubersuggest 

Ubersuggest is an online tool that makes keyword research easy. Simply search for a seed keyword (like outdoor jackets) and Ubersuggest will serve up hundreds of related keywords and give you all of the data you need to choose which keywords to focus on. 

ubersuggest keyword ideas

This tool is great for content writers, bloggers, copywriters, and marketers who want to generate new content ideas.

Other Ubersuggest features include:

  • backlink data
  • rank tracking
  • site audit reports

Backlink Data 

Ubersuggest isn’t just a great tool for getting keyword data. It also lets you see who links to your and your competitors’ sites. This is important in the e-commerce world because just like any other page, a backlink profile from authoritative sites is key for getting your e-commerce pages to rank higher in relevant search results.

Head to the Backlink Discovery Tool found under the Backlinks header. 

Enter a domain—it doesn’t have to be yours—and Ubersuggest will show you who links to it. It’s a great way to identify targets for link building.

ubersuggest backlinks results

Rank Tracking 

See how you rank in organic SERPs for your target keywords with Ubersuggest rank tracking. It’s a great way to see how you improve over time. You can find it under the Dashboard on the left side. 

ubersuggest tracked keywords results

Site Audit 

Run a site audit to track which issues could be affecting user experience and organic traffic. Think of the audit as a starting point, then review it regularly to make sure you’re fixing every issue. You’ll find Site Audit in its own tab in the left-hand sidebar.

Once the audit has run, it will tell you your top SEO issues and how to fix them.

ubersuggest results for "top seo issues to fix"

AnswerThePublic 

AnswerThePublic, now acquired by NP Digital, is a search listening tool that uses autocomplete data from Google to deliver hundreds of questions for every keyword you enter. If you’re looking for long-tail keywords, this is one of the best tools to find them. 

AnswerThePublic is very intuitive. Just enter your keyword on the homepage, and the platform will list related questions under a range of headings (where, when, how, what, etc.) You can see the questions in an alphabetical list and download the questions in a .csv file. It’s free to use, but you can upgrade to a premium plan for more features. The following example uses “multivitamins.” 

AnswerThePublic word web results of questions

The results give a detailed picture of the kind of questions people are asking and give a better idea of intent.

2. Optimize Product Pages to Improve Ranking 

Every business that wants to grow its search traffic and acquire new customers needs to optimize the on-page elements of its website. On-page SEO covers things like your site structure, meta descriptions, and heading tags. 

Not every on-page element of your e-commerce site needs optimizing, so in this section, let’s focus on the ones that matter most to online retailers: product descriptions, images, and reviews. It’s also important to make sure that you focus on metadata as well, as this is what users will ultimately see in the SERP. 

Optimize Your Product Descriptions 

Product page descriptions are important for several reasons. Firstly, they provide vital, keyword-rich content that Google uses to rank your site. Second, they entice users to buy your products once they’ve landed on the page. 

To begin optimizing your e-commerce product pages, you need to keep three key aspects in mind:

  1. What are the most crucial things on the page?
  2. How can you maximize visibility and impact with these elements?
  3. How can you use this information to improve your product description’s effectiveness?

Now, start looking at what you can do to maximize the impact of your product descriptions. This could be things like: 

  • adding multiple, high-quality, unique images
  • including keywords
  • including detailed, keyword-rich descriptions
  • adding calls to action (CTAs)
  • including testimonials

You’ll notice that a lot of these suggestions aren’t what you’d normally consider a product description. But rest assured, user reviews and call-to-action buttons are just as important as product-focused copy. 

Optimize Your Images 

A sometimes-neglected area of on-page SEO for e-commerce websites is images. Photos are an excellent way to communicate a message and draw in an audience. However, they can also distract people from the message you are trying to convey, so be careful not to use too many images and crowd your product pages.

Although quality images are vital to show your products at their best, there’s more to it than that. Optimizing your images for SEO will give you higher search engine rankings and more traffic from potential customers and may gain you traffic from social media channels.

Are you not convinced? Maybe this quote from Megan Dalke-Mitchel, Sr. SEO Strategist at NP Digital, will give you more insight into the importance of image optimization for SEO:

“Image optimization is crucial in order for your site to load quickly. If users have to wait for your pages to completely render due to large image sizes, they may bounce and shop at a competitor. This will impact YOUR bottom line. My team uses Nitropack to help optimize image sizes and improve page speed performance.”

Here are some pointers for optimizing your images

  • Provide captions with alt tags.
  • Keep your images as small as possible without impacting image quality.
  • Use keywords in file names.

Feature Reviews 

Reviews provide much-needed information that helps shoppers weigh the pros and cons of a product and decide whether to make a purchase. In addition, they help you build trust with your potential customers and improve conversion rates.

You can encourage customers to leave reviews by sending automated messages whenever they make a purchase. You can also set up email campaigns to send out reminders or offers once they have left a review on your site.

Before moving on to another area of this e-commerce SEO guide, here are more on-page optimization tips:

  • Use canonical tags to link duplicate product pages and similar group products together. 
  • Create a well-written page that includes the necessary information about the product, an image of the product, and a video of it in action.
  • Include at least one CTA on your product page. For example, “Add To Cart” or “Check Availability.”
  • Make sure you include shipping details and policies upfront, so customers know what they’re paying from the start.

3. Make Sure Your Site Is User Friendly 

UX stands for user experience, and e-commerce stores need to have a good one. You can enhance UX with good design, a better site structure, and making the aesthetics more visually appealing. 

However, it’s not just about making a website look good; it’s about making it work well. UX includes everything from navigation, ease of use, and the overall “feel” of the website.

UX is also about making sure people can find what they are looking for, keeping them engaged while browsing, and giving visitors the best experience possible.

You may not think that UX affects SEO, but the kind of experience you provide for users can have a direct correlation with how well you rank.

This includes Core Web Vitals, a set of factors Google uses to grade a page’s user experience. Google measures your site’s user experience in three primary areas: 

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

LCP is a measure of how useful Google thinks a page is to users based on the load time of the largest blocks visible to users.

CLS is a measure of how many buttons and other interactive elements on your website move after a page has fully loaded.

INP is a measure of the time it takes a page to respond to a user’s input.

From a site owner’s perspective, there are several things you can do to improve your Core Web Vitals:

  • Improve your site load time
  • Make sure any ads don’t interfere with the user experience
  • Make sure your site is interactive with clear CTAs.

4. Don’t Forget Long-Tail Keywords 

A long-tail keyword is a longer and more specific search phrase. It typically contains at least three words (often more) and has low volume. But they can be incredibly valuable to e-commerce stores. These phrases are so specific that they tend to convert at a much higher rate. So even though they generate less traffic, they generate an unusually high number of sales.

Long-tail keywords are valuable for any business, but they are especially good if you operate in a highly competitive niche.

You can find long-tail keywords by using Google’s “People Also Ask” feature or using a keyword tool like Ubersuggest.

Head over to the Keyword Ideas tab on Ubersuggest—it’s found under the Keyword Research heading. Enter your seed keyword. I’ve used “hiking boots” as an example. The tool will then generate thousands of related keywords.

The best way to find long-tail keywords is to change the SEO Difficulty filter to easy since long-tail keywords are less competitive.

As you can see in the image below, I now have over 100 long-tail terms that I can rank for.

ubersuggest results of keyword ideas related to "hiking boots"

5. Use a Simple URL Structure 

A simple URL structure enhances the user experience and improves your SEO e-commerce efforts.

Additionally, when your e-commerce site has a simple URL structure, it’s easier to share products on social media and other websites.

For the best results, URLs should be as readable as possible.

For instance, here’s an example of what NOT to do: https://www.example.com/articlesabouthiking/

It would be much better to use this URL structure: https://www.example.com/hiking-articles

If you get stuck, Google also has some advice on improving URL structure. I’ve also written a detailed guide on improving URL structure

There are other tactics that can help out as well when it comes to improving your URL structure. See below:

Use Keywords 

Search engines can scan your URLs and will use the content as a ranking factor. That’s why you must spend some time thinking about your keywords before deciding on a URL structure.

For example, if people are searching for “mens sneakers,” it can help your category page to rank if that keyword phrase is also in your page’s URL. 

Avoid Stop Words 

Common stop words are “the,” “and,” “of,” and “a.”

Stop words can decrease your URL’s readability and may lower your SEO rankings

There’s simply no need to have them in there. So instead of having a blog post with the URL:

http://example.com/what-are-the-best-hiking-shoes 

Instead have:

http://example.com/best-hiking-shoes 

 
Use Breadcrumbs 

Breadcrumbs are a navigational tool. They allow website visitors to retrace previous steps and return to where they started. Breadcrumbs are not just a usability technique but also provide additional SEO benefits.

For example, if you visit a blog post from your main homepage, the breadcrumb for that post would be “Home > Blog > This Post.”

You find breadcrumbs in many web design tools, and you can add them by using markup tags or via JavaScript

6. Use Schema Markups to Help Google and Users Understand Content 

Schema markups are HTML tags that provide additional information to search bots about the content on web pages. By using these markups, you can improve your SEO for e-commerce efforts. 

When you use schema markup, it can produce rich snippets. These are a way for search engines to show more information about specific queries at the very top of search results.

They also help people find what they are looking for faster and easier by showing different types of information.

There are many different types of rich snippets, such as:

example rich snippet result for Goodreads

The kinds of e-commerce schema are:

  • Product schema: This is an extension for products, services, and organizations. It enables discovering new products and services in web search queries by providing rich product information such as images, price, and availability. Product schema also allows the display of product ads on the SERPs.
  • Review schema: This enables online reviews. The author and title filters allow you to find specific people who have written reviews on your website or blog post and for searchers to find product reviews.
  • Product availability schema: The product availability schema is a list of products that are available to purchase. It can be a single page, or it can be within an online store. Such lists typically detail the product name, description, price, images, and variants.
  • Video schema: Video schema is a type of metadata used to describe the content and format. For example, video schema may include the audio language, video resolution, or age rating of the video.
  • Price schema: Price schema is a technique for the pricing of products or a price range.
  • FAQ schema: FAQ schema is a type of markup that you can add to your page that contains a list of questions and answers. You can find an example in the FAQs section at the bottom of this article.

7. Avoid Duplicate Pages and Content 

Have you ever visited a website and got the feeling you’ve read it all somewhere before? That’s all too common with product descriptions and category descriptions when online retailers use duplicate product catalogs and images.

It’s understandable why e-commerce sellers just republish the same descriptions. Usually, it’s simply because they don’t have the resources to produce fresh content themselves.

However, even if you don’t have time to rewrite everything, you can still significantly reduce the amount of duplication on your site in product descriptions and other areas. 

For instance, by:

  • using a CMS with site-wide 301 redirects or adding canonical tags on every page that you know might have duplicates (pages with similar titles, pages that share an identical URL, etc.) 
  • adding a suffix to the URL
  • using different product images
  • adding unique keywords on other pages

8. Don’t Let Page Speed Kill Your Ranking 

Page loading time is the measurement of how long it takes for an internet user to open a web page.

Page speed is a ranking factor, and survey after survey shows consumers aren’t willing to wait around while a site loads. A recent study found that 19 percent of shoppers will abandon a page that takes longer than two to three seconds to load. 

If you’re not sure about your current speeds, you can test it with GTmetrix or Google’s PageSpeed Insights

What should you do if your site is too slow? First, you need to find the reason. It could be:

  • Your site simply has too much content for your server to handle.
  • Too many scripts are slowing down load times.
  • Images take an excessive amount of time to load.
  • There’s a problem with your web host.

While not all e-commerce site owners can guarantee a perfect 100 percent on PageSpeed Insights, you can try and reduce load times by: 

  • having fewer images on the pages
  • compressing files
  • using fewer social media widgets
  • optimizing your images
  • avoiding clutter and using plenty of white space
  • limiting redirects and HTTP requests
  • fastening your server response time

Additionally, you might want to think about changing web hosts or upgrading your hosting package to accommodate your needs better.

9. Content Matters for E-Commerce 

E-commerce isn’t just about images and keywords. Written content should also be part of your SEO for e-commerce strategy.

Posting regular content not only attracts organic traffic. It can gain your customers’ trust, boost your website rankings, and solidify your reputation as an expert in your niche too.

There are many types of content you can focus on:

  • sharing how-to pieces and answering FAQs
  • new product launches and anything newsworthy
  • a glossary page
  • including user-generated content (UGC)
  • testimonials and launches
  • video demonstrations and Q and As
  • webinars

For more ideas, take it a step further, and get to know your audience so you understand their main concerns and problems. This allows you to write content that addresses their everyday worries and offer products that solve these.

Now you know which kinds of you can create, let’s look at how you can build a content strategy to give your audience exactly what they want:

  1. Get to know your customers better with buyer personas
  2. Understand their preferred content. If you’re tracking your content data, you should see which content types get the most views. Additionally, you can ask customers and prospects through surveys or groups.
  3. Establish a content calendar and create the content.
  4. Publish the appropriate content for the various stages of the buying cycle
  5. Use A/B testing in key areas like titles.
  6. Measure the results and tweak.

10. Link Building for E-Commerce 

Link building is an important SEO ranking factor. Quality links tell Google that your site has credibility. Backlinks also influence how your website ranks for keywords.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? But just how do you go about creating these all-important backlinks?

A few ways to do this are:

  • creating internal backlinks
  • writing guest posts
  • using social media ads
  • sharing content on social media
  • issuing press releases
  • writing blog comments and sharing on forums (if allowed)
  • creating infographics and sharing them online
  • issuing whitepapers and case studies

These are all legitimate ways to build quality links. Although they can take time, you shouldn’t take shortcuts by buying links. 

Paid links violate Google’s guidelines, and if you’re buying cheap links, the quality is usually questionable. Poor quality links lead to lower SERP rankings and reduced traffic, as well as a potential negative impact on your site’s reputation. 

11. Add a Sitemap 

A sitemap is a file on your website that contains information about all of the pages, videos, images, and other content. Search engines use your sitemap to crawl your e-commerce store more efficiently.

Your sitemap should include all of the pages on your site, from category pages to product pages. It should also include all the subcategories, products, and other content within those sections.

You can develop a sitemap manually or use an automated tool such as  Google’s Webmaster Tools to generate one. Sitemaps use both XML and HTML, although  HTML sitemaps are more helpful to visitors. 

Other tools for creating a sitemap are:

Lucidchart Sitemap Generator 

The Lucidchart sitemap generator is a user-friendly tool that makes creating a sitemap easy. It has many features, like adding categories and subcategories. 

Powermapper 

Powermapper is an easy-to-use tool for creating and updating sitemaps and allows you to generate one-click checkouts. 

It’s a web-based tool with no coding expertise required. However, there is a fee.

12. Make Social Sharing Easy 

Google’s Matt Cutts once said that social sharing doesn’t impact SEO, but many would disagree. 

While social media sharing may not directly affect your SEO, sharing your content on social media increases brand exposure and gets people more familiar with your business.

Further, the more mentions you get on social media, the more influence this can  have on your SEO by: 

  • driving organic traffic and increasing visibility
  • improving local SEO
  • expanding your content reach and enhancing brand recognition
  • increasing backlinks

If you want an easy way to increase your shares on social media, consider getting a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to automatically post content from your site across all of your social media accounts at scheduled intervals.

25 More Quick Tips for E-Commerce SEO 

Think you’ve finished optimizing your e-commerce store for SEO? Not so fast! There are dozens of other SEO strategies for e-commerce sites you can implement to skyrocket your organic traffic and sales. Look into these 25 SEO tips for e-commerce sites I list below. 

1. Get an SSL Certificate

Your e-commerce store needs to have an SSL certificate. That means users will see https:// before your URL. An SSL certificate protects customer information, is trusted by Google, and even improves your SEO. 

2. Improve Your Meta Descriptions

Write more compelling meta descriptions to increase CTRs on organic search. This won’t directly impact your rankings, but increasing your CTR can. 

Use terms like “buy online” to give the user an idea of how they can get your product before they even click. Tons of e-commerce stores do this to increase their organic CTR. 

3. 301 Out-of-Date Products

If you have an expired or discontinued product, 301 redirect the URL to a newer product page. All SEO value will transfer to the new page, and you may get a nice little rankings boost. 

4. Improve Category Pages

Treat category-based pages (like men or women) as individual homepages with their own keywords and content. That way, they should rank higher. 

One way to do this is to structure category pages around specific keywords. For example, “men’s basketball shoes” is a popular keyword that you can also use as a category for your site.

5. Add Category-Level Navigation

Always offer category-level navigation on your e-commerce store. This helps Google crawl your website and makes it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. And that means more sales. 

example of category navigation menu for Amazon

6. Optimize E-Commerce Marketplaces

Don’t neglect your marketplace SEO. Did you know 61 percent of e-commerce product searches start on Amazon? Make sure your product is listed and linked back to your site. 

7. Improve Your Title Tag

Optimize your title tag to be 60-70 characters and always include the keyword to grab user attention. The more enticing it is, the more users will click on it. 

example of a title tag in search results

Always use the product name in your meta titles to give the searcher exactly what they are looking for

8. Think About Your 404 Page

Turn your 404 error pages into a sales-driving machine. Rather than just letting 404 errors occur, head into Google Search Console, find the 404 error pages and 301 redirect these pages to the most relevant pages on your site. That way, you don’t lose an opportunity to sell to customers.

You can even customize your 404 message so that it links out to the most popular pages on your e-commerce store.

Watch the video below to learn more. 

9. Add Live Chat

You can boost your conversion rates by nearly 50 percent simply by adding live chat to your site. Why? Because live chat means customers don’t have to go to the effort of picking up the phone or sending an email and waiting for a response. 

Live chat gives the customer instant access to your customer service team who can provide them with the information they need to make a purchase decision.

10. Add More Internal Links

You can reduce your site’s bounce rate by increasing internal linking. This helps you rank higher and ensures users spend more time browsing your store. 

line graph of bounce rate based on google position and domain rating

Use internal links to suggest related products or products that other users bought to drive more relevant sales and better your site structure:

example of internal links as suggested similar products

11. Change Up Your Anchor Text

Use keywords in anchor text instead of “click here” to rank pages for specific terms. It may also make shoppers more likely to click through. 

12. Optimize Your Site’s CTAs

You should change the calls to action on your site frequently. Optimize them for specific holidays, promotions, and sales. You should see a boost in conversion rates. 

13. Add Trust With an About Us Page

Creating an “About Us” page will increase content on your site and give Google more context about which industries you’re in and what products you sell. It will also help customers to have more faith in your store.

14. Add Product Recommendations

Your homepage should already initiate the selling process. Start by suggesting products that are popular to get people interested fast. This will help reduce the likelihood of a bounce.

"holiday home gift guide" product recommendations

15. Optimize Out-of-Stock Pages

Collect leads on product pages when your product is out of stock. Instead of leaving the page blank, most likely causing the user to bounce, ask them to give their email in exchange for stocking notifications. 

Example of out of stock notification sign up

16. Implement Proper Heading Structure

Be sure to use header tags on your product pages correctly. They are easy to add and improve your HTML structure. For example, you can use the product name as the H1 header tag. Product description, delivery information, and returns-related headings can be H2s. Using header tags this way organizes your content for readers and SEO. 

17. Create A Sense Of Urgency

Create urgency on product pages and even within your meta descriptions in organic search. This is one of the reasons why Kickstarter campaigns are so effective: 

example of countdown on a product listing

Convince users to buy using urgency-inducing countdowns.

18. Compare Products to Boost Traffic

Create product-focused SEO content by creating “versus” style posts in which you compare different products that are trending.

Google autofill suggestions for "beats vs"

19. Create Gift Guides

Create holiday gift guides to drive tons of organic traffic to your site. Gift guides are simply round-up posts of popular products in your niche that make great gifts. They are a valuable tool for consumers looking for the perfect product to buy and they also do wonders for your traffic levels and conversion rates. Not only do they convince visitors to buy your products, but you can use gift guides to target high-intent commercial keywords that have seriously high search volumes. 

20. Add Video Content

Always use video content for product demos.A study by online video platform Brightcove found that almost half (48%) of respondents said video increased confidence in their purchasing decisions. The survey found they are particularly important if you have a store that sells consumer electronics, toys, and DIY tools. 

21. Pay to Play

Don’t neglect paid search. It can be a great driver of brand awareness that leads to an organic purchase (last-touch bias)

Bid on branded PPC terms to dominate the organic results for your company. This ensures that all organic searches for your store result in a click to your site.

22. Invest in Blogger Outreach

Contact popular bloggers in your product niche and ask them to review your products. This will get you links fast on roundup-style posts:

listicle-style articles in search engine results

23. Create an Affiliate Program

Start an affiliate program to get bloggers writing about and promoting your products on your site. This will not only generate more sales but will also increase your site backlinks, giving you more authority and better rankings. 

24. Use Search Console to Find Ranking Opportunities

You can use Search Console to find popular keywords that you’re already ranking for without meaning to. Create pages dedicated to these queries to send traffic levels soaring. 

You can also use another Google tool, the Ads Keyword Planner, to find high-intent, purchase-based keywords that will drive organic sales 

25. Install an SEO Plugin

Install the Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress to clean up any missed on-page SEO tasks. 

You can also use ScreamingFrog to crawl your site for any 404 errors, duplicate content, and more. 

FAQs

What Is SEO for E-commerce?

SEO for e-commerce is the process of optimizing an online store’s SEO so that it can rank higher in search engines. Several factors affect how well a website ranks on the SERPs, such as the quality and relevance of the content, the use of appropriate keywords to optimize the site, and the number of backlinks pointing to the site. 

Is SEO Important for E-commerce?

Increasing your store’s organic traffic as an SEO is a great way to boost revenue and profits. Customers acquired through SEO often have much lower Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC). SEO also lets you attract customers earlier in the funnel who aren’t yet ready to make a purchase. 

How Do I Start E-commerce SEO?

Start e-commerce SEO by optimizing the on-page elements of your website like your product descriptions, UX, and page speed. Once you have optimized your website, you can start building backlinks and other advanced e-commerce SEO strategies. 

How Is SEO for E-commerce Different?

When it comes to SEO for e-commerce, there are different areas you need to focus on, such as optimizing: 

  • product pages and descriptions
  • diversifying product content and information
  • images on your website
  • your homepage

How do I Find the Right Keywords For my E-commerce Store?

There are several free resources that you can use to find keyword ideas, such as Google Ads, Ubersuggest, and Google’s Keyword Tool. You should also look at what your competitors are using to find the best keywords for their audience.

Finally, avoid using broad keywords that generate many clicks but don’t provide much conversion value. Use long-tail keywords where you can.

What Should Be Avoided In SEO?

You should avoid using any discouraged SEO tactics when optimizing your e-commerce store. That includes creating spammy backlinks, paying for link farms, and keyword stuffing. 

What Is The Most Overlooked Aspect of SEO For E-commerce Brands?

Link building is the most overlooked aspect of SEO for e-commerce brands. Many store owners assume they can get away with great on-page optimization, but building backlinks is still essential if you want to compete for the most competitive keywords. 

How Much Does SEO for E-commerce Cost?

The cost of SEO depends on many factors, including the number of keywords targeted, the competitive landscape, and how much effort you need to optimize each page for ranking.

It’s not easy to put a price tag on SEO because it depends on how many resources you allocate and what you want to achieve. To help you budget, Search Engine Journal provides an SEO budget calculator

Conclusion 

SEO for e-commerce helps boost your website visibility, brings new customers to your store, and helps build a loyal audience. 

It may seem like there’s a lot to think about. However, by concentrating on the main SEO best practices and optimizing the critical areas of your website, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it sounds. 

The most important thing to remember is that SEO for e-commerce websites doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, it’s an ongoing strategy that requires updating as you go to get the optimum results. 

What part of your e-commerce store are you going to optimize first?

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Neil Patel

source: https://staging.neilpatel.com/blog/seo-for-ecommerce-websites/