Saying that eCommerce is competitive is an understatement – digital marketing for eCommerce is even more so. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential strategy if you want to increase your visibility on search engines without over-relying on paid ads. SEO is a multifaceted strategy, especially for eCommerce sites where online visibility is everything and competition is fierce. There’s a lot to learn – but in this article, we’ll give you a rundown of the fundamentals that form the groundwork of a solid SEO strategy.

Why Is SEO Important for eCommerce Websites?

SEO is all-important for eCommerce websites because it directly impacts your store’s visibility and traffic. After all, 44% of people start their online shopping journey with a Google search (WifiTalents).

When your site ranks higher on search engines like Google, more potential customers can find your products. Increased visibility means more organic traffic and more new customers. Organic traffic, which comes from unpaid search results, is precious. It brings in visitors who are already genuinely interested in your products, leading to higher conversion rates. 

Focusing on increasing organic traffic with SEO also means a more cost-effective marketing strategy. Unlike paid search advertising, which works on a cost-per-click basis, SEO focuses on driving organic traffic. While SEO requires time and effort to show results, the long-term benefits often outweigh the effort required. With a good SEO strategy, you should eventually be able to taper off your paid ad spending and rely mostly on organic traffic from search results. We have a comprehensive article on how organic traffic compares to paid traffic if you want to learn more.

Lastly, one of the core focuses of SEO is improving your site’s user experience, which will have multiple positive knock-on effects. For example, improving your site’s user experience will make it easier for customers to navigate your website, find what they need, and ultimately make a purchase.  

SEO Competition in eCommerce

With thousands of online stores vying for the same customers, standing out in search engine results can be challenging. According to a 2022 study from Meteor Space, 23.6% of eCommerce orders are directly linked to organic traffic, so there’s a lot at stake. 

Larger retailers often dominate the top search results thanks to their established presence and extensive resources. However, this doesn’t mean smaller businesses can’t compete – especially in local searches and niches.
To succeed in eCommerce SEO, you need a well-planned strategy. You need to research and target the right keywords, publish high-quality content regularly, and commit to continuously optimising your site. Focusing on niche markets or specific product categories at first can also give you an advantage since you’re targeting less competitive keywords.

Understanding Your Target Audience for eCommerce

The first step to a strong eCommerce SEO campaign is developing a clear understanding of your target audience. Knowing who your customers are, what they need, and how they search for products can help you tailor your SEO strategy to meet their expectations.

Use tools like Google Analytics to gather data on your current visitors and identify trends. This information can help you understand what search queries your audience uses to find your site and what type of content they find most engaging.

Next, think about the specific problems your products solve. Customers often search for solutions rather than specific items, so incorporating these problem-solving keywords into your content can attract the right audience. For example, if you sell meal kits, focus on keywords related to easy dinner options.

You can also gather useful information by engaging with your customers through surveys and social media to gain insights into their preferences and feedback. This direct interaction can provide valuable information about their needs and how they perceive your brand. Use this feedback to refine your content strategy to more directly address their needs and concerns.

On-Page SEO Best Practices for eCommerce Sites

On-page SEO is a set of measures taken within a website to improve its search engine ranking. It’s one of the most fundamental forms of SEO and the first step in any strategy. For an eCommerce store, not only will not only will optimising on-page elements increase the traffic to your website, but it’ll also increase your conversion rate. The better the experience your website offers, the more likely visitors are to go through with a purchase. Here are the basics:

Improving User Experience

Improving user experience (UX) is the main goal of on-page optimisation. A well-designed, user-friendly website will keep visitors engaged, signalling to search engines that your users find your site valuable. Most of all,  eCommerce websites need to be easy to navigate, with a clear menu structure and product categories and a search bar to help users find products quickly. While easy navigation is important for any website, it’s absolutely essential for eCommerce site architecture. eCommerce searches are often highly specific, looking for an exact product. If users can’t find the product they’re looking for quickly, they will click off and go to a competitor’s site. 

Improving Responsiveness

Having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever. More customers shop on their phones now than ever. According to a 2020 study into Salesforce research from Statista, 64% of all eCommerce traffic comes from mobile devices. Unless you want to provide over half your visitors a subpar experience, you need to make sure your site is responsive across all devices, with a layout that adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes.

Personalising Your Website’s Experience

Personalisation is a marketing strategy that uses data to show users content specific to them. It improves the user experience your site offers and, in turn, your site’s ranking. By tailoring content and recommendations to individual users, you can improve click-through rates, dwell time, bounce rate, and engagement. This will signal to Google that your website is valuable and meets user needs.

How to Implement Personalisation

Similar to creating customer personas, start by collecting data on your customers’ behaviour. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track which products they view on your website, what they search for, and their purchase history. This data helps you understand their preferences and tailor your content accordingly.

According to a study from WifiTalents, 67% of consumers prefer to purchase from eCommerce sites that offer personalised content based on purchasing history. For instance, if a customer regularly browses for running shoes, giving them a personalised customer journey by showing them related products or content about running can keep them engaged. 

Email Personalisation

Although we’re moving a little away from SEO here, we also recommend you use personalisation in your email marketing. Segment your email list based on customer data and send targeted emails that address their specific interests and needs. For example, send that aforementioned customer looking for running shoes an email with the subject line, ‘Hey John! Check out our new running shoes’. This will make your email campaigns a lot more effective. The 2022 Retail eCommerce Benchmark Report from Bluecore found personalised emails have a 139% increase in click-through rate (CTR). That’s all high-value traffic going back to your website.

Fixing Technical SEO Issues on eCommerce Sites

Technical eCommerce SEO is the process of improving your website’s performance. Technical SEO has two aspects: improving your Core Web Vitals, a Google ranking factor for SEO that measures your website’s speed and responsiveness, and ensuring that search engines can crawl and index your eCommerce site effectively. The basics of technical SEO are as follows:

• Optimise your site’s structure and sitemap
• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly
• Ensure your site runs fast
• Ensure your site is secure
• Conduct regular site audits

Optimise Your Site’s Structure and Sitemap

Start by optimising your site’s structure. Use a clear, logical hierarchy with clean URLs that include relevant keywords. For example, a URL like www.yoursite.com/category/product-name is more effective than www.yoursite.com/p12345. This structure helps search engines understand what each page is about, improving your chances of ranking for relevant searches. Once you’ve done this, submit your XML sitemap on Google Search Console. This is a guide to your website’s layout for search engines, making it easier for them to find and index all your pages.

Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly

Google prioritises mobile-first indexing, so your site needs to perform well on mobile devices if you want to do well in search. Test your site on different devices and work with a professional web designer to provide a consistent experience across all platforms. You can learn more about this by reading our introduction to responsive web design.

Ensure Your eCommerce Site Runs Fast

Your site’s loading times also play a big role in SEO. Use Google’s Pagespeed Insights to see how fast your website loads for users. If takes more than 5 seconds for a page to load, that’s a problem. There are a few simple things you can do to improve your site’s loading time. Compress images, leverage browser caching, and minimise JavaScript to improve loading times. A faster site not only improves user experience but also boosts your search rankings.

Make Sure Your Site is Secure

Security is also crucial for eCommerce sites, both in terms of user trust and Google rankings, because they process online payments and personal details. It’s essential that your site uses HTTPS to encrypt data and protect your customers’ information. You can tell if a website uses HTTPS by the prefix “https://” in the website’s URL. It’s usually accompanied by a padlock icon in the browser’s address bar, indicating that the website has an SSL certificate. 

Most reliable web hosting providers offer SSL certificates with their hosting plans. At Futuretheory, we offer secure web hosting plans starting at $20 a month, with enterprise-level security, free SSL certificates, a 99% uptime guarantee and unlimited bandwidth. This guarantees your eCommerce website is secure, fast, and reliable. 

Conduct Regular Site Audits 

Run a technical SEO audit regularly to uncover any user experience and performance issues. Look out for broken links – they can quickly frustrate users and hinder search engine crawling. This is important for all websites, but especially so for eCommerce sites where you might have many more pages and internal links than other sites. You should be using tools like Google Search Console to monitor your site’s health regularly and address any issues, like duplicate content, as soon as possible. Google Search Console is free and should be the number one tool in any website owner’s arsenal.

Off-Page SEO Tips for eCommerce Websites

Off-page SEO is any optimisation strategy that isn’t done directly on your website. The goal of off-page optimisation is to build trust and authority in Google’s eyes through external sources by building your reputation outside of your website.

Link Building for eCommerce SEO

The core of off-page SEO is building backlinks, which are links from other websites to yours. Backlinks to your eCommerce site act as votes of confidence from one site to another, signalling to search engines that your content is valuable and credible. The quality, relevance, and number of backlinks you have can significantly influence your site’s ranking. While you can purchase backlinks for a temporary boost in SEO, Google will recognise these links aren’t of high quality or relevance to your website.

Here are the strategies we recommend eCommerce businesses implement to build up a strong link profile: 

• Create great content
• Collaborate with influences
• Guest blog
• Participate in forums and communities
• Work with manufacturers and suppliers

Create Content Worth Sharing

Publish valuable content that people will naturally want to link to, like detailed guides, how-to articles, or insights about your products. For example, if you sell kitchen equipment, a well-researched guide on choosing the right kitchen tools can encourage food bloggers and culinary websites to link to your site, building up your backlink profile all while you gain exposure with the people most interested in your product.

Work With Influencers

Engage with bloggers and influencers within your industry by offering them a free sample of your product in exchange for an honest review. Ask them to link the product page on their blog or social media. This will drive traffic to your site and give your site an extra backlink.

Guest Blogging

Write articles for reputable sites related to your market. Make sure your contributions are highly relevant to both your products and the audience of the host site to guarantee engagement. For example, if you run a second-hand clothing brand, try guest posting on a website about sustainable fashion.

Participate in Forums and Communities

Actively participate in online forums and communities relevant to your products. Offer useful advice and solutions, and include links to relevant pages on your site when it feels appropriate and useful to the reader. This also has the add-on effect of helping build credibility in your sphere. 

Work with Manufacturers 

If you’re a retailer, ask manufacturers whose products you sell to feature your store on their ‘Where to Buy’ lists. These links are likely to be high-quality and can significantly bolster your site’s credibility and traffic.

Encourage Reviews and User-Generated Content from Your Customers

Reviews and user-generated content are fantastic for off-page SEO. They can be a marker of how reliable and respected your eCommerce site is, and search engines will recognise that. However, you need to actively encourage and facilitate your customers to post reviews. 

These are the best practices we recommend when getting customer reviews:

1. Simplify the Process: Make sure the review process on your website is straightforward. Offer clear, easily accessible prompts and a quick feedback mechanism like star ratings. The easier it is to leave a review, the more likely customers will engage.
2. Follow Up After Purchases: Send personalised emails after purchases thanking customers and inviting them to review the products. This shows appreciation and prompts them to share their experiences.
3. Highlight Reviews: Show off your reviews front and centre on your product pages and social media. This will boost consumer confidence in your products, encourage customers to post a review as well, and also signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy.
4. Respond to Reviews: Actively engage with all reviews, positive or negative. This interaction demonstrates that you value customer input and helps build a positive online reputation, encouraging more reviews.
5. Encourage Social Media Sharing: Motivate customers to share their experiences on social media using a brand-specific hashtag. This will boost your brand awareness outside of search engines, and you can repurpose this content across your own channels. Here’s a simple example: Ask customers to share the unique ways they use/style/love your product with a picture and your brand-specific hashtag for a 10% discount on their next order.

How To Write SEO-Friendly eCommerce Content

While having keyword-rich web pages will go a long way, regularly publishing optimised content through a blog is essential for long-term SEO success. It improves your chances of ranking for a wider range of search queries and increases your visibility to potential customers. According to HubSpot, companies that blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that don’t. However, simply posting content with keywords won’t guarantee a higher SEO ranking. You need a clear content strategy backed by research and data. 

Here’s how to write SEO-friendly eCommerce content:

• Make your blogs product-centric
• Optimise titles and headings
• Write effective meta descriptions
• Ensure your content is as readable as possible
• Encourage interaction and conversion
• Keep your content fresh

Make Your Blog Posts Product-Centric

Focus your content on areas where you can provide deep value and insights, like detailed product reviews, comparisons, or usage tips. Let’s say your eCommerce site sells camping gear. A blog post called ‘How to Choose the Right Sleeping Bag for Cold Weather’ directly ties into selling sleeping bags while providing valuable information that your audience is searching for. Ranking highly for that query can help you reach customers directly interested in your product. Writing blog posts in your topic sphere will also help Google see you as more of an authority on the matter and might increase your overall ranking.

Optimise Titles and Headings

Make your titles and headings specific to the products you discuss. They should be clear, engaging, and include keywords that your target audience is likely to be searching for. The title should tell the reader that you can solve their query or offer valuable insight.

Effective Meta Descriptions

Good meta descriptions can result in a much higher click-through-rate from Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Your meta descriptions need to serve as mini-ads for your content. Each description should include keywords and a compelling reason to click, like highlighting a unique benefit or offering a solution found within the article.

Ensure Content is as Readable as Possible

Every single one of your posts should be easy to navigate and easy to read. One of the best ways to do this is to make regular use of headings, subheadings, bullet points, and images to break up text and make information easier to absorb. Clear, well-structured content helps users find the information they need quickly, which will improve both user experience and SEO. If you want to learn more about how to write clear and engaging content for your blog, read our guide: ‘Writing For The Web – Content Guidelines For Better Engagement‘.

Encourage Interaction and Conversion

End each post with a call to action. Invite readers to leave a comment, subscribe to your newsletter, share your post on social media, or direct readers to your product pages for a purchase (preferably not all 4, as this might be overwhelming). Encouraging users to take further action can lead to higher dwell times and better conversion rates, both of which signal quality to search engines.

Keep Your Content Fresh

Keep your content marketing fresh by regularly updating popular posts and covering new trends in your market. This will ensure your blog maintains relevancy in the eyes of search engines and doesn’t drop in ranking over time. From a user perspective, regularly updating your content will ensure it continues to serve their needs as trends and user needs change.

How to Optimise eCommerce Product and Category Pages

Optimising product descriptions is vital for eCommerce SEO because it directly impacts how your products are indexed and ranked by search engines. Detailed and keyword-rich product descriptions help search engines understand what you’re selling so they can match your products to relevant customer searches.

Don’t neglect your category pages either. Well-structured categories improve site navigation and internal linking, making it easier for both search engines and customers to find products, which can significantly improve the user experience and boost your site’s SEO performance. 

Don’t Hesitate to be Descriptive and Detailed

The more detail you can provide in your product descriptions, the better. Detailed descriptions help your customers understand exactly what they’re about to buy and make it easier for search engines to match your products with the right searches.

Think about how you search for products online – you probably have a pretty clear idea of what you want, so you use specific terms and questions. When your product descriptions answer these queries with details like size, material, and other key features, it makes your products more likely to show up in search results. Customers will also be more likely to buy when they can make an informed decision.

Focus on what matters most to your customers. Describe the key benefits of your products clearly and simply. If it’s a camera, talk about what kind of photos it takes or how it performs in low light. Always include practical information like size and battery life, and be honest about what your product can do. This builds trust and helps avoid returns.

Adding Schema Mark-Ups to Your Pages

Links in SERPs aren’t the only way to increase your visibility on Google. Another big component of SEO for eCommerce sites is optimise your products to show up in the Google Shopping tab, like this:

To appear in results like the one above, you need to set up product schema mark-ups to your eCommerce product pages. Schema mark-ups are special codes that help search engines display useful information about your products directly in the search results as structured data or ‘rich results’ with useful details like price, availability, and customer reviews.

Adding schema to your product pages also means that when someone searches for something you sell, they can see important information like whether it’s in stock or on sale right from the search page like this:

This extra info can make someone more likely to click through to your site and buy something. Adding schema markups to your products is pretty simple, and well worth it considering how much it can help eCommerce SEO efforts.

Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

This tool makes it easy to add schema to your site. You just put in your product page’s URL, and it lets you click on the parts of your page you want to describe with schema, like the price or the number of reviews. As you can see from this screenshot, it’s a pretty simple interface and process:

After you use the Markup Helper, you’ll get some HTML code that you need to put into your website. You might need to get a web developer involved if you’re not comfortable with HTML. Once you’ve done that, Google’s Rich Results Test lets you see if your new schema is set up right. Just plug in the URL of your page, and it’ll tell you if everything looks good or if there are errors you need to fix.

Add an F.A.Q s at the Bottom of eCommerce Category Pages

When writing product descriptions, it’s important to find a balance between human readability and SEO-friendliness. This means it’s not the best place to go hard with too many SEP keywords if it comes at the cost of good writing and clarity about your products. Adding an F.A.Q section to the bottom of category and product pages can be a great opportunity to boost the word count, have more keyword opportunities and give more information to users.

How to Write Your FAQ Section:

Start by looking at the questions your customers often ask in emails or when they call customer support. These are the questions your FAQ should cover.
Once you start writing your FAQs, always remember to keep your answers easy to understand. No need for complicated words or to over explain – straightforward answers are best. Put similar questions together or sort them into categories. This makes it easier for customers to find what they need.

Lastly, remember to add new questions as they come up, and update the answers if things change! An up-to-date FAQ is more useful to both your customers and your SEO.

How to Do eCommerce Keyword Research

Keyword research is a cornerstone of SEO. It helps you align your product listings and content with relevant search queries from your customers. Here’s a crash course on keyword research for eCommerce:

Start With Your Product Base

First, list out all your product categories and the products within each category. Describe each item with basic keywords that you think customers might use to find these products. Include variations in product types, materials, uses, and any problem-solving features. This list will serve as the base for your keyword research. 

Use Keyword Research Tools

Use SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to expand on your initial list. Enter your basic keywords into these tools to discover related search terms, including synonyms and variations. These tools all provide valuable data like search volume (how many times a keyword is searched per month) and competition level (how many sites are competing for the same keyword). The perfect keyword to target when you’re starting your SEO strategy is one with a high search volume and low competition since this indicates a keyword is popular but not overly saturated.

Always Keep Search Intent in Mind

Not all keywords are created equal. Some keywords are used by people at the early stages of their buying journey, while others are used by those ready to purchase. For instance, someone searching for “what is the best material for outdoor tents?” is likely in the research phase, whereas someone searching for ‘buy lightweight camping tent online’ is ready to buy.

Targeting keywords according to customer intent helps you write content that meets users at the right stage of their journey, improving the chances of conversion.

Do Competitor Keyword Research

Look at your competitors’ websites and take note of which keywords they’re targeting. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can show you the keywords that drive traffic to their sites. This gives you insights into successful keywords in your industry and any potential gaps in your own keyword strategy.

Consider Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that have lower search volume but higher conversion rates. They’re less competitive and allow you to target niche demographics. They often reflect a higher intent to purchase and can drive more qualified traffic to your site.

Continuously Refine Your Strategy

Keyword trends can change based on new industry developments, seasonal influences, or changing consumer behaviours. Regularly revisiting and updating your keyword strategy is essential. Staying agile helps your eCommerce site remain competitive and relevant, maximising your SEO efforts over time.

Partnering With eCommerce SEO Experts

This is one of our longest articles, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eCommerce SEO. It’s one of the most complex fields to navigate from an SEO perspective. It takes a high level of expertise and a lot of time to see results. Keeping up with the constant changes in search engine algorithms and consumer search habits is a challenge in itself.

At Futuretheory, we specialise in developing SEO strategies tailored to the specific needs of your eCommerce business. We have over 15 years of experience and can help with all the intricacies of SEO to help you achieve lasting success online – whether that’s by writing SEO-friendly content, improving the user experience of your website, or providing guidance for your marketing strategy.

Learn more about our SEO services or get in touch with us to discuss how we can help you stay competitive.