What Is E-commerce SEO:

If you work in the world of marketing, own a website, or are a business owner, you’ve definitely heard of SEO. E-commerce SEO is a completely different beast. It is a technique used to gain more organic traffic to your online store by optimising it to appear higher on search results. It is more than just adding keywords and creating high-quality content. E-commerce SEO is about working on the performance of categories, product pages, and product descriptions. This technique is a lot more cost-effective, especially in comparison to pay-per-click ads, such as Google Ads. When using Google Ads, you’ll find yourself bidding on expensive keywords, resulting in most of your marketing budget being spent on competing with others, rather than actually growing your brand.

How E-commerce SEO Differs From Normal SEO:

Keywords: 

I know I kind of hinted earlier that keywords don’t matter, but they do – just in a different way. It requires a lot more specific keywords relating to your product, and really honing into what customers are searching for. You’re essentially combining the technical side of SEO and the human side of SEO. You’ll need to do a lot more keyword research than you usually would to find the right balance between high-volume keywords that are specific and also perform well. For example, if you’re selling a black dress, setting the keyword as ‘black dress’ is not enough to reach your target audience. Your website will be hidden under the millions of other websites targeting ‘black dress’ and no one will see your site. Instead, using keywords such as ‘mesh black dress with long sleeves’ will not only increase the likelihood of people visiting your site but also the likelihood of them purchasing as you’re offering exactly what they want. A win-win if you ask me.

Content: 

Whether you’re working with a traditional site or an e-commerce site, content will always be queen. Creating unique and relevant content is one of the most crucial parts of SEO, as that’s what makes up all the information we see on the internet. However, while the foundations set by content SEO are the same, the pillars and posts that keep the building up are a little different. 

Creating content with e-commerce in mind can sometimes be a challenge, especially when you’re dealing with a diverse range of products. Each product page must have unique content. I know it can be difficult to describe the same product with slight variances over and over again. There’s only so much you can say! However, search engines love fresh content, and you’ll be thankful you spent an extra hour writing different products for the range of black dresses you offer. It also helps avoid duplicate content penalties.

Relevance is a cornerstone of SEO. However, with the aim of trying to create unique content, you may steer away from the relevance of the content. Sort of similar to when you’re searching for something on TikTok to get a product review and end up heading back onto the FYP, completely forgetting why you’re on the app in the first place. Keep your content relevant as it will help you bridge the gap between your website and a potential customer.

Content for e-commerce can be so much more versatile and can take on various forms. This helps provide you with a range of opportunities that go beyond traditional SEO. While you can use blogs, articles, and video content as a stepping stool to boost your search rankings, why not try something new? Selling a unique product? Create in-depth guides and tutorials. Have a huge cult-like community following? Encourage customers to leave reviews and write case studies based on their experience. Want customers to find their ‘ideal’ product? Create quizzes that can guide them towards a suitable product based on their answers. The possibilities are truly endless with e-commerce SEO. All you need is a good understanding of your target audience and a little bit of creativity.

Product Focused vs. Information Focus:

While both E-commerce and traditional business sites have the same aim – attracting customers, the focus on how that’s achieved is completely different. Traditional SEO has a more information focus, creating in-depth content that provides information, answers questions, or addresses topics relevant to the target audience. This is usually in the form of blogs, articles, case studies, etc.  The main emphasis is on generating traffic without directly promoting your product or services. Whereas e-commerce SEO is heavily product-focused, improving the visibility of specific products. 

Link Building:

Link building is a crucial aspect of SEO. Not only does it help build your site’s authority, but having relevant backlinks is a great way to give you that increase in web traffic we’re all striving for. While both link building for e-commerce and traditional sites both have the same advantages, the strategies used are completely different:

• E-commerce SEO: Product reviews, Influencer marketing, Affiliate marketing.
• Traditional SEO: Guest blogging, Content marketing, Local SEO, Infographics. 

4 killer E-commerce SEO best practices you need to implement NOW:

1. Technical SEO: First things first, if you haven’t already, optimise the technical aspect of your website. Double-check and fix your page speed, add an XML sitemap, and find and fix errors to make sure you have the basics of your site done and dusted.
2. Schema markups: Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a powerful tool to help search engines like Google to better understand what your page is about. With the help of schema markups, it allows search engines to display more information about your page through rich snippets. Rich snippets add additional elements to your search results including reviews, pricing details, sitelinks, star ratings, pricing details, etc. While it may seem like a little detail it can be the difference between a potential customer clicking on your website or not. By using this tool, you’re able to make your product seem so much more interesting than it actually is, and can be a deciding factor in customers purchasing. It can also help customers get an idea of important information such as pricing all at a quick glance.
3. Keywords: Your keywords can make or break your search rankings. Conduct thorough keyword research and identify relevant, high-performing, specific keywords for your products. Using tools like Google Keyword Planner can help you find keywords that are perfect for your website and your products.
4. Site structure: The structure of E-commerce sites heavily differs from traditional sites. E-commerce sites are usually structured: Home>Product Category>Product. Make sure your site is structured in a way that makes sense to your customers and search engines so that you can get the best of both worlds. If you have duplicate content, especially for products that are similar, use canonical tags to specify the preferred version of a page.