SEO For Your E-Commerce Site

Are you currently running an e-commerce site, and you’re looking to boost your traffic but you’re not sure how to do it? SEO for your e-commerce site is likely the answer for you. This article will tell you how SEO (or search engine optimization) can help your e-commerce site attract more web traffic, gain more customers and hopefully be more successful. It will also tell you how SEO Design Chicago can help you use SEO to achieve your goals. 

First off, let’s define each of the following terms so you can have a better understanding of what e-commerce SEO is, how it works and how it can help you. 

Ecommerce SEO

What Does E-Commerce Mean? 

The definition of e-commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services using the internet, according to Shopify. Ecommerce comprises everyone buying and selling online, from the giants like Amazon and Walmart, to your neighbor who runs a shop on Etsy selling her homemade jewelry. No matter where your e-commerce site falls on that scale, utilizing SEO techniques can help you meet your goals. 

What Does SEO Mean? 

SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the practice of driving quality traffic to a website through search engine results pages

How Can E-Commerce SEO Help Me? 

SEO is important for any website to succeed these days, but it’s even more important for e-commerce sites. Why? Because e-commerce sites need to attract traffic, and then convert that traffic into customers. You can be running the coolest e-commerce site out there, but if no one can find it, it won’t matter. Making sure your e-commerce site is optimized for search engines is a surefire way to make sure that you are doing all you can to attract web traffic. 

Most e-commerce sites today rely upon paid ads or social media to draw in customers, both of which are excellent strategies. However, implementing SEO on your e-commerce site is an easy game plan for attracting more traffic and hopefully, more customers. Once you’ve optimized your site just once, you’ll probably see an increase in visitors. And what business owner doesn’t want that? 

But how does it work? Utilizing SEO means anytime someone uses keywords on search engines like Google and Bing to search for products or services like the ones you sell, they will find your site at the top of the search engine results page. According to several recent studies, most consumers don’t click past the first page of results they get when using a search engine. So if your site isn’t optimized for search engines and isn’t popping up in the first few results on search engines results pages, you’re losing quite a few potential customers (and sales!) 

Simply by following a few SEO best practices for e-commerce sites, you can attract more web traffic and potential customers, enhance your business’s visibility and hopefully, earn a lot more money. 

Ecommerce SEO Tips

Tips for SEO on E-Commerce Sites

Here are a few tips for how to get started utilizing SEO on your e-commerce site: 

Keyword Research

Like any other SEO campaign, keyword research should be the first step in an e-commerce site’s SEO strategy. Keywords are the words or phrases users type into a search engine like Google or Bing. If you know which keywords commonly bring users to your site, you can use that information in reverse to utilize those keywords frequently on your site, and hopefully bring even more of that traffic back to you. (And more traffic means more customers!) 

Google and Amazon both offer excellent keyword tools to discover which keyword will work best for your site. (See below for more tools we recommend.) One tip is to find the best keywords that apply to whatever it is you’re selling, then find some long-tail keywords, too. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific than usual keywords but typically result in more buying customers than casual browsers. 

Build your site (with keywords)

Now take the keywords you’ve found, and utilize them frequently on your website. It’s also important to make sure your site is easy for customers to use so they don’t get frustrated and go elsewhere. A well-designed E-commerce site will rank higher on search engines than one that isn’t. It’s a good idea to include your relevant keywords in URLs, page directories, and subheads to boost your page, too. 

On-page SEO 

It’s important to optimize each page of your e-commerce website. Yes, every single one. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it! Make sure to optimize each page’s URL and the descriptions on each of your category and product pages. Take the time to write a colorful and exclusive description for each product. It will help your SEO rankings to have unique text on each page (as opposed to just copying and pasting text from the manufacturer, that might match what your competitors are using.) 

This is another great opportunity to use those keywords you found. It’s important to work them into the text of your website as naturally as possible, for both SEO purposes and to make your site enjoyable for your customers. 

Add Schema Markup

Schema markup is code that you can put on your e-commerce website to help search engines give users more information about your site. It’s a great way to boost your site’s SEO. 

See How You’re Doing

Utilize a tool like Google Analytics (see more about this below) to track how your site is doing, and then you can make any necessary updates or fixes. 

Shopify SEO

Shopify SEO 

What Is Shopify? 

Shopify is an online service that lets you create an online store. It is the most popular e-commerce platform, so chances are if you have an e-commerce site or are thinking about starting one, Shopify is the service you’re using to house your (digital) wares. However, it’s possible you’re not making the most out of the Shopify platform. A few SEO upgrades can help you fix that. 

Tips for Utilizing SEO on Shopify 

Here are some tips the experts at SEO Design Chicago have provided for you on how to use SEO to improve your Shopify website

  • Make sure to remove duplicate URLs

  • Write blogs with plenty of keywords 

  • Compress your images

  • Delete any unnecessary Shopify apps 

  • Include structured data on category pages 

Some of these tips are a little technical for the casual Shopify user. If you need any assistance, our experts at SEO Design Chicago would be happy to help you with any of these steps! 

Ecommerce SEO tools

E-Commerce SEO Tools 

There are several SEO tools available for you online to make sure you are making the most out of your Ecommerce site. Here are some of the tools we recommend: 

Amazon Keyword Tool

Amazon Keyword Tool is a free keyword research tool that can help you find the best keywords for your Ecommerce site. (No, you don’t have to be selling products on Amazon to use it!) All you do is enter the type of product you’re selling, choose a marketplace, and it will give you plenty of suggestions. 

Google Analytics

Anyone with a website, but especially anyone with an e-commerce site, should be using Google Analytics. It tracks and reports website traffic for you. You also have the option of setting up e-commerce Tracking, which can track purchases made on your site. Google Analytics is without a doubt the best tool out there for tracking a website’s performance (and seeing how all the hard work you’ve done with SEO is paying off for you!) 

Google Structured Data Testing Tool

You can use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool to help you create new website pages, and also improve the pages you already have. It helps you develop, test, and modify your structured markup. Structured data is the code that makes it easier for search engines to crawl, organize, and display your content. (So it’s pretty important!) 

Google My Business

Google My Business lets any business create and maintain a profile online that can be found in Google’s search results. It also helps you connect with local customers (especially helpful if you also have a brick-and-mortar store.) It shows your hours, photos, customer reviews, and more. Creating a Google My Business page will immediately boost your site’s SEO. 

SEO Site Checkup

Still not sure how your site is performing on search engines? You can use SEO Site Checkup’s website to see. First, pick some specific areas you’d like to improve on and tell the site. The site will then issue your e-commerce site a letter grade to tell you how you’re doing and will tell you the most important fixes you can make to help you do better. This is a particularly helpful site if you’re new to using SEO. 

Contact SEO Design Chicago Today

Hopefully, this article has taught you a lot about how to use SEO to reach more potential customers for your e-commerce site. If you have any questions would like help with building an SEO strategy for your e-commerce site, please contact us today at SEO Design Chicago

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