The vast majority of SEO methods that websites need to put into place are important no matter what type of company you run. However, there are sometimes a few SEO approaches that can be specific to certain types of companies, ecommerce included. Last week we published an article about SEO for franchise companies here, and below explains a few SEO methods not to miss for an ecommerce strategy.
Improve your Meta Descriptions
This is something that many ecommerce sites focus on when it comes to ads, but they forget that Meta descriptions are also important for organic results. If you don’t create a custom Meta description then that means that the search engine will create one for you, which of course won’t lead to anything appealing to readers.
Learn more about writing successful Meta descriptions here.
Canonical URLs
This is an idea from a Search Engine Watch article that many ecommerce companies miss. If you have multiple ways for someone to get to a specific landing page such as a promotion, a countdown, the categories or onsite search, and more. This then creates unique URLs for each, which will lower your search rank for each way of searching. This is where you can specify a canonical URL so that search engines know where they should be sending all of the PageRank and SEO juice.
You can learn more about canonical URLs here.
Apply Structured Data
Structured data can be used for any type of company, but it is especially important for ecommerce companies focusing on SEO as opposed to only PPC. Rich snippets and other structured data options help your company just off a SERP and can add a nice benefit to your product pages. Google has claimed that structured data can affect a page’s rankings if done correctly and it can help improve CTR because your listing is more appealing. Ecommerce companies benefit most by including rich snippet images of their products or “how to” videos of their services.
Learn more about rich snippets here.
Update to HTTPs Security
Ecommerce companies were the first companies urged to transfer to HTTPs security protocol (although now all companies should be making the switch, which you can learn more about in this article). For ecommerce companies this is an absolute must when it comes to SEO.
Learn more about HTTPs here.
Don’t Forget Social Commerce Options
There are also many different ways that you can optimize your social media accounts and use some ecommerce options that social platforms have included over the last few years. For example, Pinterest and Instagram just added “Shop Now” buttons to make it easier for users to make a quick purchase, so it’s important that your ecommerce company takes advantage.
Learn more about these features here.
Have a Blog
So many ecommerce companies focus so much on product pages and completely forget about the importance of fresh content. Content is much more likely to earn you natural backlinks than product pages, and it’s a great way to show the Google bots that you’re producing new and relevant information on a consistent basis. In other words, it’s important for readers as well as important for your SEO, so although it may take a little bit more work, it’s worth it in the end.
Learn more about why ecommerce websites need a blog here.
Enable Reviews and Ratings for Your Products
Many people don’t think that this has anything to do with SEO, but as social becomes more and more influential in SERP rankings this becomes more crucial as well. Ratings and reviews have always been important on sites like Yelp or Google Reviews, but allowing for ratings and reviews on your actual ecommerce site gives people another way to engage, another reason to share and link back, and it gives Google more content to crawl—all great things for SEO.
Learn more about the importance of reviews and ratings here.
Once again, the tips above are specifically important for ecommerce websites, but many of the other SEO tactics websites use still apply. You should still have a fast load time for your pages, still create quality and relevant content with internal linking, still make sure your site is mobile-friendly, still focus on website navigation and how deep your landing pages are, and more basics you can learn from this blog!
Are there any other specific SEO tips you know of for ecommerce websites? Let us know in the comment section below.