Ecommerce SEO: How Online Stores Can Drive Organic Traffic

As the ecommerce landscape becomes more and more competitive, it is crucial that online stores invest in search engine optimization (SEO). By optimizing their website for organic search, ecommerce businesses can drive traffic to their site and increase sales.

While there are many different SEO strategies that ecommerce businesses can use to improve their ranking in search results, not all of them are equally effective. In this guide, we will cover some of the most effective ecommerce SEO strategies that you can use to drive organic traffic to your website.

By following the tips and advice in this guide, you can improve your ecommerce SEO and start driving more traffic and sales to your online store.

On-Page SEO Strategy

On-page SEO for ecommerce platforms is all about making sure your keywords are in the right places.  This includes your titles, meta descriptions, product descriptions, and more.

On-page SEO is essential for ecommerce stores because it helps search engines understand what your website is about. When you optimize your website for on-page SEO, you are more likely to rank higher in search results and drive organic traffic to your site.

Ecommerce Keyword Research

Before you can start optimizing your ecommerce website for SEO, you need to know which keywords to target. Keyword research is the process of finding and selecting the right keywords to rank for in search results.

Once you have a list of relevant keywords, you can start incorporating them into your on-page SEO strategy.

1. Check to see if you are selecting the appropriate keywords

Making sure you are using the appropriate keywords as your target is the first step. The best way to do this is to use Google’s Keyword Planner tool. You can enter a seed keyword into this tool to see related keywords that people are searching for.

Make sure that the keywords you are targeting are relevant to your ecommerce store and have a high search volume. You can also use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to see how difficult it would be to rank for a particular keyword.

If you are starting out, it might be beneficial to choose keywords that are less competitive. As you rank higher for these keywords, you can then start targeting more competitive keywords.

Another important factor to consider when choosing keywords is intent. Make sure that the keywords you are targeting have the right intent for your ecommerce store. For example, if you sell women’s clothing, you would want to target keywords like “women’s dresses” or “women’s clothing”. These keywords have commercial intent, which means that people who are searching for these terms are more likely to make a purchase.

2. Find keywords through competitor research

In addition to using Google’s Keyword Planner tool, you can also find keywords by doing competitor research. See which keywords your competitors are using by taking a look at their websites.

You can use a tool like Moz’s Open Site Explorer to see which keywords your competitors are ranking for. Just enter your competitor’s URL into the tool and you will see a list of their top keywords.

3. Make use of Ahrefs to discover keyword opportunities

Ahrefs is a great tool for SEO, but in particular its keyword research tool  can be very helpful for ecommerce keyword research. Just enter a seed keyword into the tool and you will get a list of related keywords as well as their search volume, CPC, and difficulty level.

This information can be very helpful when deciding which keywords to target. You can use Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer to find ecommerce keyword ideas for your store.

Ecommerce Product Pages

Once you have a list of target keywords, it’s time to start optimizing your ecommerce product pages. Here are some tips for optimizing your product pages for SEO:

The URL

Make sure to include your target keyword in the URL of your ecommerce product pages. This helps search engines understand what the page is about and can help you rank higher in search results.

The Title Tag

Your title tag is one of the most important elements on your ecommerce product pages. The title tag is the text that appears in the search results, so it’s important to make sure that your target keyword is included in the title tag.

In addition to including your target keyword, make sure that your title tags are unique and descriptive. This will help you stand out from the competition and increase your click-through rate.

The Meta Description

The brief description that follows your title tag in the search results is known as the meta description. Like the title tag, it’s important to include your target keyword in the meta description. In addition to including a keyword, make sure that your meta descriptions are compelling and entice people to click through to your ecommerce product pages.

The Body Copy

In addition to optimizing your ecommerce product page titles and meta descriptions, it’s also important to include your target keyword in the body copy of your pages. Where you place your keywords will depend on what type of ecommerce product page you have.

If you have a category page, it’s important to include your target keyword in the H tags (e.g. H1, h2, h3, h4)

If you have a product page, it’s important to include your target keyword in the product name, product description, and other places on the page.

The Image Alt-Text

Another important factor to consider when optimizing ecommerce product pages is image alt-text. When an image doesn’t load, text known as the alt-text is displayed instead. It’s also what search engines use to understand what an image is about.

Make sure to include your target keyword in the alt-text of your images. This will help search engines understand what the image is about and can help you rank higher in image search results.

Content Marketing for Ecommerce

In addition to optimizing your ecommerce website, it’s also important to invest in content marketing. The process of producing and disseminating top-notch content in order to draw in and engage your target audience is known as content marketing.

There are a number of different types of content that you can create for your ecommerce store, including:

• Product descriptions
• Blog posts
• Videos
• Infographics

Content marketing can help you attract new visitors to your ecommerce store and convert them into customers. In addition, it can also help you build relationships with your customers and create brand loyalty. Investing in content marketing is a great way to improve SEO for your ecommerce store.

Technical SEO Clean Up

Once you have your ecommerce website optimized, it’s important to do a technical SEO clean up. This involves making sure that your ecommerce website is free of any technical issues that could be holding back your SEO.

Fixing technical SEO issues can help you improve your ecommerce store’s ranking in search results.

Website Architecture

One of the most important aspects of technical SEO is website architecture. Website architecture refers to the way your ecommerce website is structured and how easy it is for search engines to crawl and index your pages.

To create an ecommerce website that is easy for search engines to crawl, make sure to:

• Use a flat URL structure
• Use descriptive URLs
• Use breadcrumbs

Bad Site Architecture For Ecommerce

If you want to improve your ecommerce store’s SEO, it’s important to avoid common architecture mistakes. A common mistake is using a dynamic URL structure. Dynamic URLs are often long and confusing, which makes them difficult for search engines to crawl and index.

Another common mistake is using keyword stuffing in your URLs. This is when you stuff too many keywords into your URL in an attempt to rank higher in search results. Not only will this not help you rank higher, but it can also result in a penalty from Google.

Good Site Architecture for Ecommerce

A good ecommerce URL structure is flat, descriptive, and uses keywords sparingly.

A flat URL structure is easy for search engines to crawl and index. It also makes it easier for users to navigate your ecommerce website.

Descriptive URLs help search engines understand what your ecommerce pages are about. They also make it easier for users to remember your ecommerce website and find your pages in search results.

And finally, using keywords sparingly in your URLs helps you avoid keyword stuffing penalties from Google.

Page Speed

Page speed is a crucial element of technical SEO. Page speed refers to how fast your ecommerce website loads.

Slow page speeds can hurt your ecommerce store’s ranking in search results. In addition, slow page speeds can also lead to high bounce rates, which means that users are leaving your ecommerce website before it has a chance to load.

To improve your ecommerce store’s page speed, make sure to:

• Optimize your images
• Use a content delivery network
• Minimize redirects
• Reduce the size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files

Redirects

Redirects are another important factor in technical SEO. Users are transferred from one URL to another using redirects.

If you have too many redirects on your ecommerce website, it can lead to high bounce rates and slow page speeds. In addition, it can also make it difficult for search engines to crawl and index your ecommerce website.

To avoid these problems, make sure to use redirects sparingly on your ecommerce website.

Sitemaps

A sitemap is a file that contains a list of all the pages on your ecommerce website.

Sitemaps help search engines understand the structure of your ecommerce website and find your ecommerce pages.

To create a sitemap for your ecommerce website, you can use a tool like XML-Sitemaps.com.

Robots.txt

A text file called robots.txt contains directives for search engine crawlers.

The robots.txt file helps you control which ecommerce pages are crawled and indexed by search engines.

To create a robots.txt file for your ecommerce website, you can use a tool like the Robots.txt Generator from SEOChat.

Internal Linking

Internal linking is the process of linking to other ecommerce pages on your website.

Internal links help search engines understand the structure of your ecommerce website and find your ecommerce pages. In addition, internal links can also help improve your ecommerce store’s ranking in search results.

To create internal links on your ecommerce website, make sure to use keyword-rich anchor text. Anchor text is the visible text that is linked to another ecommerce page.

For example, if you have an ecommerce page about black dresses, you might link to it from a blog post about what to wear to a funeral using anchor text like “black dresses” or “formalwear”.

In addition to using keyword-rich anchor text, you should also make sure to link to ecommerce pages that are relevant to the context of your blog post or article.

HTTPs

HTTPS is a security protocol that helps protect ecommerce websites from attacks.

In addition to being more secure, ecommerce websites that use SSL certificates also tend to rank higher in search results.

To install an SSL certificate on your ecommerce website, you will need to purchase one from a trusted Certificate Authority such as Symantec or Comodo.

Mobile Responsive

More and more users are shopping on their mobile devices. In fact, ecommerce sales on mobile devices are expected to reach $659 billion by 2021.

To make sure that your ecommerce website is accessible to mobile users, you need to make sure that it is mobile responsive. Mobile responsive ecommerce websites are designed to be easy to use on smaller screens.

Structured Data

Structured data is a type of code that helps search engines understand the content of your ecommerce pages.

Adding structured data to your ecommerce pages can help them appear in rich snippets in search results. Rich snippets are special search results that include additional information about your ecommerce pages, such as product reviews and prices.

To add structured data to your ecommerce pages, you can use a tool like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is a common problem on ecommerce websites. Duplicate content occurs when the same or similar content appears on more than one ecommerce page.

Duplicate content can confuse search engines and make it difficult for them to crawl and index your ecommerce website. In addition, duplicate content can also lead to lower search rankings.

To avoid duplicate content issues, you can use a tool like Screaming Frog to find and fix duplicate content on your ecommerce website.

Canonical Tags

A canonical tag is an HTML element that helps you control which ecommerce page is the “master” or “canonical” page.

The canonical page is the ecommerce page that you want search engines to index and rank in search results.

To add a canonical tag to an ecommerce page, you will need to edit the HTML code of your ecommerce website. If you are not comfortable editing HTML code, you can ask your ecommerce platform provider or web developer for help.

Link Building Strategies for Ecommerce Websites

Link building is the process of creating links to your ecommerce website from other websites.

Link building is an important part of SEO for ecommerce websites because links help search engines understand the popularity and authority of your ecommerce website. In addition, links can also help improve your ecommerce store’s ranking in search results.

There are a number of different link building strategies that you can use for your ecommerce website, including:

1. Resource Page Link Building

Resource page link building is a process of finding websites that list resources related to your ecommerce website’s products or services. Once you have found these websites, you can then contact the webmaster and ask them to add a link to your ecommerce website.

To find resource pages that might be relevant to your ecommerce website, you can use a tool like Google’s Link Explorer.

Link Explorer will show you a list of all the links pointing to a particular ecommerce website. You can then use this information to find resource pages that might be relevant to your ecommerce website.

For example, if you have an ecommerce website that sells pet supplies, you could use Link Explorer to find resource pages that list websites about pet supplies.

Once you have found these resource pages, you can then contact the webmaster and ask them to add a link to your ecommerce website.

Resource page link building can be a time-consuming process, but it is a very effective way to build links to your ecommerce website.

2. Broken Link Building

Finding websites with links to defunct e-commerce pages is the process of “broken link building.” Following the discovery of these websites, you can get in touch with the webmaster and request that they replace the broken link with one that points to your e-commerce website.

A tool like Google’s Link Explorer can be used to locate websites with broken links.

A list of all the links leading to a specific e-commerce website will be displayed to you by Link Explorer. Then, using this data, you can identify websites that contain links to defunct e-commerce pages.

If you operate an online store selling pet supplies, for instance, Link Explorer can help you locate websites that link to defunct pet supply online store pages.

Following the discovery of these websites, you can get in touch with the webmaster and request that they replace the broken link with one that points to your e-commerce website.

Broken link building is a very efficient way to increase links to your e-commerce website, though it can be a time-consuming process.

3. Guest Posting

The way that we would recommend ecommerce entrepreneurs to get links is by writing articles for other ecommerce websites in their industry as a guest author.

When you guest post on another ecommerce website, you can include a link back to your ecommerce website in your author bio.

Guest posting is a great way to build links because it allows you to reach a new audience of potential customers. In addition, guest posting can also help improve your ecommerce store’s search engine ranking because it shows that your ecommerce website is an authority in your industry.

This approach does require the creation of new content which can be a lot of work upfront. However, if you can create high-quality content, guest posting is a great way to build links to your ecommerce website.

Measuring SEO Success for Your eCommerce Website

There are a number of different metrics that you can use to measure the success of your ecommerce SEO efforts.

Some of the most important metrics include:

• Organic traffic: This is the number of people who visit your ecommerce website from a search engine. You can track your organic traffic using Google Analytics.
• Conversion rate: This is the percentage of people who visit your ecommerce website and make a purchase. You can track your conversion rate using Google Analytics.
• Average order value: This is the average amount of money that people spend when they make a purchase on your ecommerce website. You can track your average order value using Google Analytics.
• ROI:  This is the return on investment that you make from your ecommerce SEO efforts. To calculate your ROI, divide your total ecommerce SEO costs by your total ecommerce SEO revenue.

Use Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a tool that ecommerce entrepreneurs can use to track their ecommerce website’s search engine ranking.

To use Ahrefs, simply enter your ecommerce website’s URL into the tool and then select the country and language that you want to track.

Ahrefs will then show you where your ecommerce website ranks for different keywords in different countries. You can also use Ahrefs to track your ecommerce website’s backlink profile.

Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a tool that ecommerce entrepreneurs can use to measure their ecommerce website’s organic traffic and engagement metrics.

To use Google Analytics, simply create a Google Analytics account and then add the Google Analytics tracking code to your ecommerce website. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to see how much organic traffic your ecommerce website receives as well as engagement metrics such as bounce rate and time on site.

Our Final Thoughts

Ecommerce SEO can be a difficult process, but it’s important to remember that the benefits can be huge. By following the tips in this guide, ecommerce entrepreneurs can increase their website’s organic traffic and boost their sales. In addition, by tracking their website’s SEO success using tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs, ecommerce site owners can measure the effectiveness of their SEO efforts and make necessary adjustments. We hope you found this guide helpful!