So, you have created your e-commerce store and are looking for a way to attract traffic? Perhaps you have been struggling for a year without much luck? Don’t give up yet. Help is here!
Having understood the struggle online businesses go through, we decided to help demystify the complex world of SEO in this short [yet] comprehensive article focused on 7 SEO hacks for e-commerce websites.
We urge you to read till the end. You will be happy you did.
But First, Why Bother About SEO for E-commerce Websites?
Competing with tons of other e-commerce stores on the web is no job for the weak and fainthearted. Gone are the days Amazon, eBay, and other big retail giants were the only e-commerce stores online. Today, there are millions of small businesses springing up from every end. Thanks to Shopify and the likes, you can now build your online store in only a few minutes. No wonder, there are over 24 million e-commerce sites today.
The reality of this gigantic number is, you have to work 10 times harder to be at the front of your customers. As insignificant as one little mistake is, it could cost you a significant loss in revenue.
Like you, 70% of smart marketers are struggling to attract quality leads. With SEO proving to be king of all marketing strategies, you bet more and more marketers are spending their resources on SEO. Surprisingly, SEO happens to be the cheapest and most effective compared to traditional marketing strategies.
Not sure why?
Well, your store is online. Rest assured most of your traffic will come from organic searches. And one tested and trusted method of ranking well in organic search engines is adhering to the best SEO practices. Whether it is increasing page speed, fixing metadata, or posting quality SEO contents, you have to awaken to the fact that SEO still reigns supreme when it comes to attracting massive traffic.
Now that you understand the importance placed on e-commerce SEO, we have compiled 7 E-commerce SEO hacks to help you rig the game. Enjoy the ride!
1. Retain More Visitors With a Fantastic Website
It is amazing how much online store owners are willing to spend promoting their products but how little they spend on their website which literally represents their brands and serves as their store.
Do you know you have only 50 milliseconds to make a first impression on your website? Your website is your very first contact with your visitors. If structured accurately, it is the best advertising strategy for your brand. Otherwise, it could be the bane of your entire marketing strategy.
From your website layout to its interface and load speed, every single thing counts if you are looking to make a fantastic website.
2. Reach the Right People with the Right Keywords
If SEO is the lock, keywords are the only keys crafted to open the locks. To excel in SEO for e-commerce websites, you have to use the right keywords to reach the right people. It is not enough to fight for Google’s first page. If you are ranking on the first page for the wrong keywords, rest assured you are getting little or no traffic. Even more assured that you are getting almost no sales.
Imagine ranking on the first page for automobile-related keywords when you sell household products. Most searchers will not bother clicking on your website since it advertises a totally different product. A few other automobile searchers who make it to your website will immediately bounce off when they notice you sell nothing about automobiles.
Consequently, you have to pay utmost attention to keyword research. When lost, be sure to borrow a page from your competitors’ handbook. Moz advise online sellers to focus on long-tail keywords as they account for up to 70% of search traffic.
3. Keep Your Visitors Hooked with Compelling Product Descriptions
How would you describe your product descriptions? A common mistake among online sellers is uploading poor contents. You could have a killer website and amazing products and still get traffic without sales. It is one thing to attract traffic to your site, it is a totally different thing to convince them to make a purchase.
If you are copying and pasting manufacturers’ descriptions, you are doing it wrong. To rig the game, you have to create unique, compelling product descriptions that help you stand out from the crowd. Keep them short, informative, and catchy. Also, do not forget to embed vital keywords.
4. Optimize Your Blog Posts
As more e-commerce store owners begin to embrace the importance of a blog section, it is important now more than ever to emphasize the importance of SEO contents. Gone are the days when you can put out anything and get people crawling to you. With the fierce competition in the overcrowded e-commerce world, you have to position yourself as a thought leader to earn the trust of visitors. Fortunately, your blog posts give you the opportunity to do just that.
Besides curating rich informative contents, your blog posts also create an avenue to rig the SEO game by giving you the chance to embed targeted keywords, videos, and photos. The three powerful traffic magnets in the online world.
Don’t just get poetic and flood your blog with irrelevant posts. Use each post as an opportunity to show your wealth of knowledge in the field as well as an SEO strategy and even advertisement medium. With a professional copywriter, you can do all these in just a single post.
5. Target Mobile Searchers
Do you know that mobile searchers make up more than half of e-commerce traffic? It is okay to make your website architecture smashing. However, it is more important to make your site mobile-friendly.
People spend a substantial amount of their day on their phones. Unsurprisingly, desktop internet consumption has dropped significantly in the past decade. With the drop in desktop internet usage, smartphone internet consumption grew more than 70%.
In layman’s term, this means that your target audience is most likely on their phone, not sitting in front of a desktop. Therefore, your website architecture should be adjusted to fit perfectly and beautifully on a mobile device.
6. Make Existing Customers Brand Ambassadors
Attracting new leads can be somewhat difficult. The good news is, you do not have to do it all by yourself. Customers reviews are the new advertising gold mine. This is why big brands pay influencers a fortune to post their products. With many con artists posing as online sellers too, customers are becoming increasingly wary of the online stores they patronize. To stay on the safe side, they explore reviews from past customers. This is where you can leverage your existing customer base.
You can partner with existing customers to become affiliate marketers for your brand. You could also give out incentives to customers who leave reviews on the products. Whatever path you choose to follow, be sure you are using your happy and loyal customers are helping you drive traffic.
7. Avoid Broken Links
Sure, the e-commerce SEO game is all about linking. Linking to your products and other sites with good domain authority. One quick reminder though – avoid broken links. More often than not, online sellers are so eager to get their contents published that forget to check for broken links. Think of the benefits of internal links and backlinks, now think of the opposite because that is what you get when you use broken links.
Pro tips: Take the time to go through old contents to ensure your site is free of broken links.
SEO for E-commerce Websites: Parting Thought…
Despite the constant change in the advertising world, it is crucial to know that SEO is still king. The best hack to stand out in the overcrowded e-commerce space is to focus on SEO for e-commerce websites. Remember traffic births sales and SEO births traffic. Don’t sleep on it!
