Due to the nature of the business, rankings and conversion rates significantly impact eCommerce stores. E-commerce stores are growing online, so it needs all the attention it is getting on the internet.
Does ranking matter for an online business? If the store exists online, so you must, like any other website, optimize the store for search engines. This will ensure that search engines pay attention to you and attract some targeted visitors to your website. Conversion is everything you consider a business.
Ecommerce SEO: Ranking Matters
Nowadays, you need to have at least page 1 of search results, and if you want users to notice your site, it’s best to be the first result. The Optify study shared by Search Engine Watch found:
- According to Optify, ranking first on Google is equivalent to all traffic from second to fifth place sites.
- The first click website has an average clickthrough rate (CTR) of 36. 4%; the second location website has a clickthrough rate of 12. 5% and the third-party website has a clickthrough rate of 9. 5%.
- Your site must appear on Google’s page 1, especially in one of the top three organic placements, because those placements receive 58. 4% of a user’s clicks.
You can lose out on clicks and sales opportunities if you have not optimized your site on search engines. Another study done by Gabe Donnini stated that the first page of results on Google search was better than the second page.
Even though the first result can still outperform others when it comes to the clickthrough rate, it is not harmful to rank on another page. That is where your audience will analyze the results to find the best result and then clicks on them to get their answers.
An eCommerce store will need to target the first search result, but if you are still on the first page, then you are still safe.
Now that you know why it is so essential for you to rank on the first page of search results, below are some things that you can do to help rank your eCommerce site on the first page of SERPs.
Ways That You Can Improve Your eCommerce SEO
Optimizing Your Keywords
The first thing that you need to do is to optimize your site using targeted keywords. They need to be relevant based on your industry niche and bring in traffic from SERPs. Moz’s Keyword Tool or Google AdWords is a great place to get suggestions on keywords.
You can use these keywords, but you should avoid any keywords that are broad or highly-competitive. It would be best if you were specific when it comes to keywords. 70% of keywords fall into long-tail searches. Long-tails will contain millions of unique searches done a few times a day, but when optimized, they will make up most of the demands for information on search engines.
It would help if you kept that in mind when it comes to keywords. Use long-tail keywords. Once you have exhausted them, you can use low-volume keywords for your blog posts and other pages.
Do Competitor Research
Keyword research will do most of the job for you. You have to analyze the strategies that your competitors are using.
When you think about your competitors, you need to think about all the sites and businesses talking about your services or products. That could be other sites that may not even sell the product or blogs. These websites can be competitors or an opportunity for you to add to the content in exchange for a product shout-out.
Think of Main Keywords
Think about the keywords that your competitors are ranking for and focusing on. Check out the domain authority too. Check to see if their site pages have a higher authority than yours. If you do not know how to do this, then check out Moz and install a toolbar that will do that for you.
When you look at keyword gaps between your competitors and your site, think about keywords with high search volumes and low competition. That is going to be easier to get than keywords that have higher competition.
Think about secondary keywords or keywords that relate to your industry that can help support your content.
Checking Your Site Errors
After you’ve compiled a list of keywords and done thorough research, it’s time to check out your website and look for any bugs that caused it to be left behind. This could include website errors and other elements that are causing problems with your website. You can use a powerful tool called Screaming Frog to explore your website and control links, images, CSS, and applications from an SEO perspective.
You need to check the 404 redirect page, change the 302 redirect page, and remove duplicate content from the page. The Krill Frog tool will help you identify these and many other errors on the website.
After reading all of the significant errors, it is time to watch out for website speed. If the site loads slowly or is missing some items, your customers won’t like it. Research also shows that when the loading time exceeds 3 seconds, people will leave the website!
That’s why you need to have a faster website because you can’t afford to lose customers. Check to see if your website is complete in 3 seconds. To reduce the load time on your site, check the following:
- Use other platforms
- Reduce the size of the image and media
- Purchase more space on the host server
- Use a content distribution network
Website Navigation
Be sure to study your competitor’s sites closely. Take note of the elements that have defined the site. How are the product pages placed, the descriptions and categories? These are going to be vital elements that can help you see the flaws in your store.
Navigation needs to be smooth and vertical. Is the checkout smooth, and are your products in order and aligned? You can learn by studying your competitors. Start from the most significant business and see how their site is organized. Once you have an idea, organize your site to make it different. Avoid any deep-rooted architecture because no one will have enough time to visit all of those pages. Keep it open and accessible.
How You Can Stand Out
Look at your competitors’ strategy, and it will give you a good idea of what is missing or what you can stand out from. What can you do to make your website experience different from your competition?
List the various operations that can be performed, and then perform them. Today, users are brilliant. If they see a store with unique products, they will most likely choose this option.
Important Links
You will need to make a list of places where your competitors are getting their inbound links. Linking is vital, but it is needed to link and be linked from other credible sources. Once you have gotten that list, you can attempt to get linked to these sites.
You should also check out these websites’ spam score and see if they have a high score. If they do, delete them from your list because they will not make your store look good to SERPs. Google can tell if you have a bad site linking to you, so choose wisely and be aware.
Usability and Mobile Optimization
Usability can determine the success or failure of your business. If your website visitors are satisfied, you will get an SEO boost. Excellent usability means repeat visitors, who have high credibility on Google rankings. If you are confused about your website’s usability, you can do a usability test to determine if website elements are working well.
Another critical factor that directly improves usability is mobile optimization. Your website needs to be optimized for mobile phones, as this is now inevitable. Mobile shopping is a new hot trend, and you should give this opportunity to potential customers.
These statistics will convince you:
- Small screens and difficult payments are the main reasons you have to go without shopping carts in e-commerce. However, with the help of tablet phones and other large-screen devices, cell phone optimization plays a vital role in developing e-commerce businesses.
- 61% of customers who visit unfriendly mobile websites are more likely to visit a competitor’s website.
- 31% of cell phone users ‘mostly’ use cell phones to access the internet.
Write a blog
If you find keywords related to your business, you may lose some keywords due to more important keywords. Optimizing websites with a keyword is a good choice. However, blogs can host keywords that don’t end up on the main page.
Blog posts and other blog content can help you optimize your blog page for different keywords in each post. The blog is an occasional part of the company, but not entirely without contact with the main website. Ecommerce websites can use their blogs to explain their business strategies, share stories, and create educational articles to help users. You can either do it yourself or hire a professional writer who has extensive blogging experience and knows how to use SEO keywords in articles.
Integrate your blog link with your website so that your main website audience can see it and the two websites complement each other. Another good option is an e-book. It can be written from the beginning, or it can be a summary of valid posts that you have published over some time. Avoid filling in keywords in these posts as they carry Google penalties.
Other E-Commerce SEO Tips
- Title tags, ratings, and product categories are great places to put keywords.
- Use product photos and videos because they leave a deep impression on people.
- Write a unique product description and try to use this space to add a strong keyword.
Do you want to improve your website ranking? Our experts will help you reach the top! As a full-service digital marketing agency, we build and optimize your e-commerce website to help you increase your online income and attract the attention of your target market. Contact us now for a free consultation!
