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Optimising for search engines is a readily accessible opportunity for ecommerce websites. Even though SEO delivers some of the highest returns on investment among ecommerce marketing strategies, many online stores are created with little to no focus on search engine performance.
Instead, businesses often lean on social media or paid advertising, which, while effective, demand continuous effort and financial investment. Companies spend billions of dollars annually on ads, and these costs keep rising.
In contrast, SEO requires upfront work but offers long-term benefits — once your site ranks well, you can generate sales almost effortlessly without ongoing expenses. By mastering SEO best practices, you can unlock new potential and take your ecommerce business to the next level with the help of a London SEO agency that is passionate about moving the needle
The key to successful on page SEO for ecommerce sites is the correct positioning of keywords so that google has a clear understanding of what your page is all about. Carrying out on page SEO is crucial as it will help you show up in other search engine results ( SERPS) features.
Ranking factors for SERPs include the following:
It is vital that the first thing you do when starting an e-commerce seo campaign is keyword research. Getting this wrong will result in one of two things happening.
Both scenarios fall short of being ideal, making ecommerce keyword research essential. Proper keyword research helps you focus on terms that are easy to rank for, have a solid search volume, and deliver high conversion rates.
When choosing keywords it is important that you consider more than simply how difficult it is to rank for them or how many people search for them. There are four good options that can help you research ecommerce keywords, find keyword difficulty (KD) and search volume, and uncover buyer intent:
Unless you’re utilising a tool like Ahrefs, you are unlikely to have access to detailed keyword data for the phrases you’ve chosen. To select the right keywords, you’ll need to evaluate keyword difficulty, search volume, and buyer intent.
Google Keyword Planner can provide an approximate search volume and CPC, which can help assess buyer intent. However, it doesn’t offer insights into keyword difficulty (KD) or distribution.
If you’re serious about optimizing your SEO strategy and expanding your keyword coverage, consider building a keyword matrix.
A keyword matrix allows you to sift through relevant keywords and organize them in a spreadsheet, making it easy to identify the best keywords for each page. It focuses on keyword difficulty, search volume, and search intent for effective targeting.
SEMrush is an invaluable tool for ecommerce keyword research because it provides a comprehensive analysis of keywords, competitors, and market trends. With SEMrush, you can identify high-performing keywords, assess their search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click (CPC), and uncover valuable long-tail opportunities.
The tool also helps analyse competitors’ strategies, showing which keywords they rank for and how they drive traffic. To use SEMrush effectively, start by entering a seed keyword into the Keyword Magic Tool to generate a list of related keywords. Evaluate their metrics, filter by intent or difficulty, and prioritize keywords that align with your ecommerce goals.
If some of your competitors are ranking higher than you in search results it is a good idea to use their site for keyword ideas. The first thing to do is type the keyword into google, pick one of the competitors then look closely at their category and product pages for possible keywords.
However, it is important that you do not just pick the exact same keywords just because they rank higher than your own as there are other factors such as domain authority to take into account.
Another thing that you should consider is breadcrumbs which is an advanced navigation function designed to assist google in scanning and indexing your site. If you want to ensure that breadcrumbs has been correctly set up enter your site into google.
You can tell if you’ve set up breadcrumbs correctly by entering your site into Google. Seeing “yoursite.com -> category -> subcategory” indicates breadcrumbs have been set up
Ahrefs is a comprehensive top class Seo tool. It can be used for keyword and competitive research, to build backlinks and so much more. Because the system is straightforward to use you are able to see built out reports that show where keywords rank on your site and your competitors which lets you see how you are performing and where improvements could be made.
There is a very good argument that says it is crucial that product and category pages are the ones that rank. This is because when users discover these pages through Google, they instantly get access to all the products contained in that category. To effectively optimise these pages, ensure your target keyword is strategically placed in the following areas:
An easy way to improve your search rankings is to put your primary keyword in the URL. This is particularly relevant if your website is competing in a more niche market as an optimised URL is another way you can drive more traffic to your site which will give you an edge on the competition. URLs can also be tailored to the keyword that is most effective for your category page rankings.
The title of your page or the H1 should always include the relevant keyword as near to the beginning as possible. This will help by promoting the central theme of your page which in turn helps you rank organically for the H1.
The majority of category pages don’t have any introduction, they just go straight to the products which isn’t good when it comes to google. However, it is important that each category page has a minimum 300 word introduction and you should ensure that your keyword is included 2-3 times.
Because google is unable to read images it is reliant on the alt text to understand what the image is and what is included in it. Image alt tags provide you with an extra opportunity to get your keyword onto the page which improves your chances of it appearing on google image search results.
Even though there is no clear proof that putting the keyword into your metadata will directly impact rankings, click through rate can be improved which in turn has been found to improve rankings. The reason for this is that when the main keyword is included in the meta description and meta tags google will bold it in search results. Repeat this process for all your category pages, and then apply the same approach to your product pages.
Content mow more than ever plays a key role in modern marketing strategy which is shown in a study by Oberio which states that:
Having quality content is one of the best ways to ensure your ecommerce store will rank for additional keywords. It will also make it easier for you to build backlinks. One thing you should be aware of is that product and category pages are only able to rank for a certain number of keywords. Once you have reached that limit you will be unable to cover any more search areas.
Content will help you fill in any gaps and give you the ability to rank for both short and long tail keywords relating to your particular industry. Content marketing can help generate more traffic to your page which in turn can lead to increased sales as well as making it easier to build links to your site which can give you better domain authority.
Seo is not solely about keywords there are also technical aspects to it that cover the finer details and minutia of a website. If you are doing an SEO clean up or an e-commerce SEO audit it is imperative that you not only review but have a clear understanding of all the aspects of your site listed below.
Ecommerce site architecture refers to the way you organize your navigation, category pages, and product pages. Essentially, it’s about presenting the most relevant content to potential customers while minimizing the number of clicks needed to access it.
To achieve an effective site structure, follow these two golden rules:
Additionally, leverage keyword research to create clear, relevant URLs and subdirectories that enhance usability and SEO.
Site speed plays a key part in both the ability of your site to rank and the user experience. A study by Radware states that when a site runs slowly there is much less chance of online shoppers making a purchase.
If you want some ideas on how to improve the speed of your site take a look at google’s page speed insights tool and plugin your URL. Google will give you a score on both mobile and desktop between 1-100 and tell you what steps you can take to make load up times quicker.
Redirects guide users and search engines from one URL to a different one.
While redirects do impact SEO, whether the effect is positive or negative depends on a number of different factors. Search engines use unique URLs when identifying content, and when Google encounters a redirect, it evaluates the relevance between the new page and the original page’s keywords.
To maintain or improve your SEO rankings, ensure there’s a strong connection between the old URL and the new one. Failing to establish this relevance could result in a loss of search engine rankings.
Adding internal links to product category pages is a powerful yet often overlooked aspect of an effective SEO strategy. Internal links help guide both users and search engines from one page to another within your site, creating a seamless navigation experience. By building a network of interconnected pages, you encourage visitors to stay longer, explore more content, and increase the chances of engagement or conversions.
It is important that you design every one of your URLs with keywords in mind. In a lot of cases a URL will be created automatically and lots of marketers leave them as they are and move onto the next page. This a huge mistake as it means they are losing potential opportunities. If you make every URL an extension of the page itself it will help improve both your rankings and seo capabilities.
By crafting each URL as an extension of the page itself, you can increase your rankings and SEO capabilities.
Nowadays it is more common for someone to do a google search on a mobile device as opposed to a computer. This is why it is imperative that your website is both mobile friendly and responsive to give your SEO strategy the best chance of success.
Google does not like any kind of duplicate content and as such will penalise a site if it has an excessive number of redundant pages.This is why it is essential you ensure that when you are creating content or a category page it is totally unique and can be separated from other parts of your site.
The Hreflang attribute is an HTML tag used to specify the language and regional targeting of a webpage.
This attribute is especially valuable if you have multiple versions of the same page in different languages, as it helps Google differentiate between them. Proper use of Hreflang ensures you won’t be penalised for targeting diverse audiences worldwide.
Canonical tags or URLs guide Google by indicating which version of a page you want displayed in search results.
When similar topics or pages share overlapping keywords across multiple URLs, using a canonical tag for the primary page prevents duplicate content issues. Without it, your SEO performance could be negatively impacted due to redundancy.
A sitemap is a file that outlines details about the pages, videos, and other content on your website. Its primary function is to guide Google by highlighting the most significant pages, helping the search engine crawl your site more effectively.
Although often overlooked, sitemaps play a crucial role in your SEO efforts. By directing search engines to key areas of your site, you can influence user navigation, improve rankings for specific pages, and strategically manage site traffic.
There are a number of different ways you can drive traffic to your site such as paid ads and e-mail to name just two. However, the only one that is reliable, easy to get, self sufficient, and will cost you nothing is search traffic. If you are looking to generate more traffic for your site and get the amount of visitors you expect then you should acquaint yourself with the ins and outs of ecommerce seo strategies as they can transform your business.
A straightforward SEO campaign has the potential to significantly boost your sales. The best part? It doesn’t have to take years to see results. By using this guide, you could achieve your goals much faster than you might expect
