The Ultimate Guide to SEO for E-commerce Websites (Stemstech)
There’s no question that ranking higher than your competitors on Google is a must. But, what if you don’t know the SEO tips and tricks that will get your e-commerce site to the top? If you’re missing out on clicks, you’re probably also missing out on sales.
Whether you’re just getting started with a new website or improving an existing site, this complete guide provides useful tactical suggestions for stepping up your SEO game.
These days, reaching the first page isn’t enough. You must rank #1.
In 2011, Search Engine Watch reported that a research study by Optify discovered that “websites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of 36.4 percent; number two had a CTR of 12.5 percent; and number three had a CTR of 9.5 percent.”
Another study by Stemstech at Marketing Land last year supported Optify’s findings. It showed that “the share of impressions coming from the first position is almost double that for the second position, truly illustrating the value the first spot holds.”
What does this mean in layman’s terms? If you don’t have a strong SEO strategy in place, you are losing out on brand impressions, clicks, and sales.
Do you want to know how to rank your e-commerce site? Read this step-by-step guide, and you’ll be on your way to becoming an SEO savvy business owner or marketer.
Part 1: Research
Before you begin any SEO work (on-site or off-site), you need to start with research – keyword research and competitor research.
Why?
Research is the most important piece of SEO. Targeting the wrong keywords can ruin your campaign by generating low quality traffic and few conversions, and no business wants that!
A: Keyword Research
There are three primary areas you need to focus on when conducting keyword research:
1. Find keywords for your homepage and product pages
When it comes to optimizing the most important pages of your website, you should consider relevancy, search volume, and ranking difficulty.
I suggest going for keywords that are highly relevant to your brand or products, that have a high exact match search volume (local, not global) in Google’s free AdWords Keyword tool, and that have a low difficulty score from Moz’s keyword tool.
B: Competitor Research
After you’ve done keyword research, you’re half way there! Now it’s time to conduct competitor research. You should consider:
1. Which keywords are your main competitors going for?
Compile a list of keywords your competitors appear to be using with their SEO strategy. Also, you should look to see if they have a higher Domain Authority (DA)than you? Do their web pages have higher Page Authorities (PA) than you?
Part 3: On-Page Optimization
While off-page search engine optimization (that is, link building) is important, on-page optimization is just as important. On-page optimization includes all of the actions you take within your own web pages to help your site rank better.
Think of on-page optimization as the low-hanging fruit in the SEO game. You can control this, which is great.
When it comes to on-page optimization, there are eight key targets you need to focus on:
- Keyword Optimization
- Site Structure
- Internal Linking
- Usability
- Mobile Version of Website
- Customer Reviews
- Rich Snippets
- Social Media Integration
A: Keyword Optimization
As mentioned earlier in this guide, you want to optimize your page and blog posts on your site for one keyword. In order to optimize a page, you need to ensure that page has the keyword in strategic locations, including:
- The page title
- Headers
- Subheaders
- Paragraph copy
- Product descriptions
- Image file names
- Image alt tags
- Meta title and description
- URLs
When creating URLs, be sure they are user friendly. This means they should include real words (your keyword) and not a lot of numbers and gibberish.
Also, remember that your meta title and descriptions should not sound like gibberish or be packed with keywords either. They should read like an ad because the higher your click-through rate (CTR), the higher Google will place you in its results. Makes sense, right?
