Benefits of E-Commerce SEO

Introduction

So, you’ve heard of SEO and you know it’s a game-changer in the world of Google…but you’re not exactly sure why. That’s okay! We’re here to help connect the dots and explain the benefits of e-commerce SEO so your store can be easily found by all of your soon-to-be customers! 

But wait a minute…maybe you’re thinking “I don’t have an e-commerce store yet but I’m interested in learning more about how I can make a great one!” This blog is for you too! 

More leads, clicks, and conversions await! 

What is SEO 

Let’s quickly break down the basics of SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. A couple of helpful definitions include: 

On-page SEO: Think about all the content that you see on the page you’ve landed on. The words, photos, videos, etc.’s are all a part of on-page SEO. Strengthen your presence with internal linking, title & meta tag optimization and more. 

Off-page SEO: Think of off-page SEO as all of the things that go on behind the scenes of your website: link building, content marketing, social media and more. 

Keywords: Search terms added to your online content (website, blog posts, etc.) that work to improve search rankings for that website and the pages within it. You can find the best keywords for your business by performing keyword research. We love SEM rush’s Keyword Magic Tool!  

Search Engine Results Page (SERP): Google’s SERP for example is all of the content that appears after you’ve searched. Google ranks the results based on the website’s content relevancy to the keyword(s) used. 

Why SEO is Important 

Words, words, words…and more words. That’s what Google does every second of every minute. Google reads words all day long. So when you pull up your browser and search “fall candles” Google is reading over billions of words and in a matter of seconds it pulls up the websites and content that are most relevant to that keyword. 

E-commerce platforms that utilize strong SEO tactics will arrive at the top of the SERP. With pages upon pages of results landing within the top (5) is considered an impressive feat. 

SEO easily helps customers: 

• Find results to their search in seconds
• Navigate their product search with ease
• Discover new products
• Find results to their search in seconds

. 

How E-commerce Has Grown

So, how powerful is e-commerce? In Canada, this year e-commerce sales will reach $86.52 billion. This speaks to the sheer magnitude of online users who are seeking out new products or services…online! Surely the days of stepping into a brick-and-mortar store to pick up the latest fall trends are not over. 

However, customers have an increased desire to discover new brands and support independent artisans. E-commerce stores prove to be the quickest and most efficient way for them to find what they’re looking for.

Over 4.5 billion global internet users are performing searches online with 87% of shoppers beginning their product search online. So, when users are looking for the newest and coolest product, let’s ensure that they find you! 

Connecting SEO and E-commerce

So when it comes down to it….it doesn’t matter how beautifully designed, engaging and interactive your website is if your SEO strategy isn’t properly optimized for your customers to find you in the first place! 

Tips for helping to increase your SEO performance: 

• Increase website speed: Nothing makes a potential customer bounce quicker than having to wait for your website to load. Perform routine website maintenance checks to ensure that all your pages are loading quickly. 

• Keyword-rich titles: Make sure that the titles of all your website pages include keywords that are highly relevant to the products on your page. All of the product titles within the page should also use relevant keywords to increase your searchability.

• Use alt tags: Your e-commerce store/website will likely have photos of your products throughout all of its various pages. Use alt tags to describe your product’s images or videos. Because search engines cannot read photos or videos, describing them using alt tags will ensure that Google can locate your page and provide potential customers with relevant content. 

For example, you may find the following product on your website. To the bare eye, we know what it is, but to google or a screen reader, it means nothing. An appropriate alt tag for this photo may be:

<img src=”crewsockwithblackstripes.jpg” alt=”Crew socks with black stripes” height=”100″ width=”100″ class=”left” />

• Reviews: If possible, include an option for customers to submit product reviews. This helps to promote your off-page SEO and also helps build brand loyalty.

• Internal linking: Think that fall jacket would pair perfectly with a toque that you carry? Let your customer know that and provide them with a link to the product! We have no doubt they’ll be clicking “add to cart” in minutes. Quality inbound links help to increase your page and overall website rankings. 

• Brand Building: Work on strengthening your online presence, including your social media digital advertising strategy. As consumers hear about your brand, they’ll begin to perform organic searches, increasing your SEO ranking over time.

• Create a Google My Business page: Google My Business is an amazing tool that’ll help your customers find your business and website easier. Create your page and provide key details regarding your business: address, hours, phone number and website. 

These are just a few tips to help you increase your SEO presence. If you want the full SEO setup, reach out and we’ll connect you with our SEO aficionados. Get ready to reap the benefits of e-commerce SEO.

Building Trust With Google

Hooray! Your new website has launched. Because your website is brand new and competing with all of the millions of other businesses, websites, and content, it’s not going to be immediately discoverable. 

Before all the amazing pieces of SEO start working hard to bring you customers Google is going to have to crawl your website to accredit authority to its domain name. This process can take anywhere from 4 days to 4 months. 

The purpose of crawling is to learn what your website is about via keywords, metadata and more. Once Google has crawled your website, it will become indexed. Having your website indexed ensures that your site is able to appear in the SERP. 

Our team will set your website up in the Google Search Console so we can keep tabs on your indexing status and work to continuously improve your visibility. 

Build Trust With Customers

Good SEO builds trust with customers. When you build trust with Google, you inherently begin to build trust with customers. 46% of product searches begin on Google, signalling that the relationship between your business and Google and Google and your customer is inherently related. 

Good SEO ranks higher on the Google SERP, thus when customers perform a Google search and see you come up, there’s very little doubt about whether the consumer trusts your website enough to click, they just will. When your SEO is properly optimized, user experience soars!