SEO is the process of improving a website’s visibility when it comes to search engines. You want to appear important to search engines and relevant when it comes to the keywords that the user is looking for when making their searches. By using relevant keywords and phrasing, you will be able to appear higher in search results. This can help you gain more website traffic. In this article, we’ll discuss what e-commerce SEO is and what you should and shouldn’t do to improve the SEO of your website.
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What Is E-Commerce?
E-commerce refers to electronic commerce which is the process of buying and selling goods and/or services over the Internet. It occurs whenever someone conducts a business transaction through an online platform or website.
Why Has E-Commerce Gotten So Popular?
During the recent pandemic, e-commerce became more popular than ever. While having a physical store is still beneficial, online shopping has become the easier option. Businesses began to realize how much time and money they were saving by having a virtual store rather than one that would need to be constructed, staffed, and filled. While brick-and-mortar businesses have access to local customers, by using e-commerce SEO, they could potentially gain a global audience.
How E-Commerce Works
The basics of e-commerce are practically the same as a regular store. A customer looks through what a website has available and picks what they are most interested in purchasing. The customer typically will place the order through your site or application and the seller will be notified that they received an order. Then the business processes the payment and the sale is complete, which is the equivalent of taking your items up to the register. The final step is for the distributor to ship the order to the address that was listed at the purchase. However, instead of immediately being able to take your products home, customers have to wait for the shipment to be sent out and the carriers to bring the order to their shipping address.
The Do’s of E-Commerce SEO
There are many things that you can do to increase your website’s ranking among search engines, some of which are very clear and others that may take some thought.
One of the key things to remember when it comes to e-commerce SEO is the importance of keywords. It is important to do keyword research, which will help you identify the keywords that customers might use to find your website. Then, you should include them on many pages on your website.
Another thing you should do to improve your e-commerce SEO is to write good, descriptive file names and alt tags. This ensures that when search engines are combing through what they think the user wants to see, it will determine that your website is relevant and should be included in the search results. Another important feature is your URL. You should use keywords in your URL whenever possible as well. This again tells the search engine more about what users can find on your website.
The Don’ts of E-Commerce SEO
While we discussed utilizing keywords and how it is going to be crucial to your e-commerce SEO, we also need to acknowledge keyword stuffing. While you need to use keywords and product descriptions in order to get recognized by a search engine, you also do not want to stuff your site full. In order to increase product optimization, you need to use keywords on your images and in your content. But if you use these keywords excessively, it can actually harm your website. While you want to be recognized by search engines, you need to remember that you are writing for a reader, not the search engine alone.
Another misstep that can occur is a slow load time. Oftentimes, if your page isn’t loading quickly or doesn’t boot up fast enough, customers will not stick around and wait. The slower your page runs, the higher the chance you lose your customers before they even get to the next step of the site. If you want a good experience for your customers, you need to ensure that your page is going to load quickly. Most e-commerce sites and product pages should take less than 3 seconds to load.
SEO Design Chicago Can Help With E-Commerce SEO
If you are unsure about your site’s current SEO, feel free to reach out to SEO Design Chicago. We can provide an SEO analysis, which tells you how well your current efforts are working. We can also continue working with you long-term to ensure that your e-commerce SEO strategy continues to benefit your business.
FAQ:
- What is SEO?
- What is e-commerce?
- Why is e-commerce so popular?
- How does e-commerce work?
- What is keyword stuffing?
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