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Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital component of any good digital marketing strategy because it helps connect your products and services with the people that are searching for them online. Typically, we think of SEO as a tool to help your blog posts and web pages rank higher in search results, but it can also play a crucial role for your eCommerce pages. Here are 10 eCommerce SEO tactics to help drive more traffic to your store.

1 – Engaging Product Descriptions

The way you describe the products in your eCommerce store is an overlooked, but effective tactic to help you stand out from the crowd. You’ll want the content to be engaging to the readers and unique, especially if there are a lot of competitors in your niche. You should also include relevant keywords in your product descriptions that blend seamlessly and seem natural.

2 – Optimize Product Images

Every product page has images and those images should be optimized for best SEO results. Any captions should be clear and concise, there should be alt-text included for each image and if necessary, compress the file sizes so they load quickly. Most customers won’t stick around for too long if images are slow to load.

3 – Customer Reviews

When you have customer reviews for your products, it’s like a signal letting everyone know this is a reputable place to shop and the products are high quality. Research has shown that you can increase conversions when you include reviews on your eCommerce site and Google may view them as fresh content being added regularly, which will help with SEO.

4 – Effective Internal Linking

Both humans and search engines like it when you link to other, relevant content on your website. With an eCommerce site, you have ample opportunity for internal linking as you can link to pages with similar or complimentary products, or to blog posts that go into further detail about the products on a given page. When creating an internal linking strategy, think about pleasing the humans and it will satisfy search engines at the same time.

5 – Straightforward Navigation

Shoppers demand easy navigation when they are shopping online. If you make the process of buying fro you as seamless as possible, you will be rewarded with better search results. If there is a high rate of bounce backs from your site to the search engine, it will seem as though your site doesn’t have the information searchers are looking for and less traffic will be sent your way.

6 – Increase the Speed of Your Site

How quickly your site loads can have an impact on SEO. As mentioned above, it’s a good idea to compress images if they are loading slowly, but you need the whole site to load quickly for optimum results. Aim to be among the fastest loading sites in your niche and you should reduce the number of visitors leaving for your competitors.

7 – Optimize for Mobile

More and more people shop online via mobile devices these days, and it’s a trend that’s only going to grow. Whether you’re a smaller, local business or national brand, it’s imperative to optimize your eCommerce site for mobile if you want people to stick around. And Google’s mobile-first index that prioritizes mobile search results means you’ll likely be left off the first page if you don’t comply.

8 – Manage Out of Stock Products Correctly

When certain products run out of stock or you’ve stopped selling them, the last thing you want to do is just delete the page from your website. People landing on your site and then leaving right away because the page they want is no longer there won’t help with your SEO efforts. Instead, leave the page up and leave a message that explains the item is out of stock or discontinued, with links to relevant, complementary products on other pages. You can also remove the original page and use a 301 redirect that takes them to a relevant product page or blog post.

9 – Keyword Optimization

Keywords are important for your eCommerce site, just as they are for your service pages and blog posts. Much of the time, your titles and product descriptions will include the keywords you want to rank for, but don’t forget to check out competitor sites and search results for your chosen keywords to see what’s ranking now. And since Google is getting more into search intent, consider why your visitors would be searching for the keywords you are targeting and make sure they get it when they land on your website.

10 – Social Media Integration

Integrating your eCommerce site with your social media accounts will give you another weapon in your fight for superior SEO results. Things like social logins, share buttons and driving engagement will all let it be known that your site is one worth visiting. 

These are just a handful of the ways you can make your eCommerce site stand out from the crowd and get noticed by search engines. If you’d like to learn more and find out how we can help you reach new heights with your eCommerce, get in touch today and book a discovery call. 

Author John Keller

Cultivating proper SEO tactics along with building sites with excellent User Experience since 2003.

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