Of all the digital marketing tactics you can employ to get your brand out there, Search Engine Optimization has emerged as an essential. Failing to optimize your site and content for search engines can lead to your useful products and unique mission getting buried under thousands of better-optimized results.
But, with SEO having a multitude of facets - keywords, key phrases, meta descriptions, micro text, backlinks, load times, URL structure, crawl ability, NAP information, bounce rate, schema markup and more - that all play into effective optimization, getting your site to the top of results can seem impossible.
Thankfully, optimizing your e-commerce site, while it takes a lot of work, isn’t an insurmountable task. In this article, we’ll take a look at why SEO is well worth the time it takes to implement for your online store. We’ll also discuss how you can make your e-commerce site stand out from the masses with some handy SEO tips.
Why Online Visibility is Essential for E-commerce Sites
Ranking in the top spots and benefitting from increased visibility is a major factor in your business’s success. Increased visibility means:
- Increased traffic
- More conversion opportunities
- Higher customer engagement
- Customer retention and increased repeat purchases
- Brand exposure and improved industry recognition
- Enhanced consumer trust and credibility
- A competitive edge in your market
- Opportunity for customer-base expansion
- Stronger influence on customer decision-making
- Understanding of and adaptation to market trends
- Potential for long-term business growth
Since your online store likely doesn’t have physical premises, SEO is the equivalent of a large, neon sign catching the eyes of potential customers.
How SEO Enhances Your E-commerce Site’s Visibility
SEO can enhance your website's visibility through various strategies. However, the fundamentals that most digital marketers know and employ are keywords and phrases.
- You include keywords and phrases related to your products throughout your site’s pages, meta titles, meta descriptions, and micro text.
- Search engines pick up on these keywords and categorize your site accordingly.
- Customers search for related keywords, phrases, and questions when they’re looking for products/services like the ones you sell.
- Your site, if your SEO is adequate, appears on the first search engine results page (SERP).
However, it’s not just keywords that play into your rankings.
User Experience
Through meticulous research, sellers, bloggers, and SEO experts have found that search engines measure overall site quality, mobile optimization, image, video and audio quality, and loading times. A common way to measure these things is through visitor dwell time and the pathways they take through your pages.
Usability Geek found that 88% of online customers would not return to a site after having a bad user experience. So, if your site isn’t prioritizing UX, potential customers spend less time on your pages, your store sinks through the rankings, and your visibility decreases. Essentially, the easier and more satisfying your site is to use, the higher you’ll rise in the results.
Readability and Authority
The CEO of TopRank online marketing, Lee Odden, once said that “content is the reason search began in the first place.” So, since we can assume that a low bounce rate on landing pages is a major factor in high SERP rankings, content that keeps customers on your site is incredibly important for SEO.
Helpful, entertaining, and educational information with good readability is what you should aim for on your store’s blog. This is not only due to customer satisfaction, but also linkability. If you provide content or products that other sites link back to, search engines recognize that you have authority on a topic, pushing you up in the results when users search for those topics.
Local SEO
In 2022, Bright Local found that an eye-watering 98% of internet users surveyed had used search engines to look up local businesses. But, the nature of e-commerce stores is that they’re entirely online. This means you lose out on local SEO, right? Well, not exactly.
You can create location-specific content that shows up on the SERP for users in the regions your store ships to. Local SEO can also help you target audiences based on their location preferences. To do this, you’ll need to use local keywords, optimize your Google My Business profiles, ensure consistency in your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information across online directories, and geotag content and pages for specific areas where possible.
Search Engine Indexability
Though algorithms leave a large amount of SEO to visitor behavior, they still have the ruling hand when it comes to categorizing and showing your site to users. While a large part of SEO is catering to potential customers’ search habits, wants, and needs, you also need to be kind to the algorithms.
To index your site, search engines will ‘crawl’ through pages. This means if your site includes links with rel=nofollow attributes, pages that require logins to access, or pages disallowed in the robot.txt file, the search engine cannot crawl through it. A well-structured site map, clear URL structures, and clean, accessible content contribute to enhanced crawlability, helping search engines push you to potential customers.
Security
Your site’s security will play a role in its optimization, albeit indirectly. While more secure sites don’t explicitly rank higher, secure websites usually have higher traffic and longer visit times because they gain user trust. Since e-commerce is the most vulnerable industry to cyber attacks, you need to secure your site for adequate SEO.
An SSL certificate (HTTPS) for your site’s URL secures the connection between the user's browser and your store, encrypting data transmission. Search engines like Google often favor HTTPS sites. Plus, popular browsers may display security warnings for non-secure sites, deterring users from visiting. Finally, security plug-ins and anti-virus software will help protect your site against malware and hacking, in turn protecting you from getting de-indexed.
Tips to Enhance Your E-commerce Site’s SEO
Now you know why SEO is vital for your e-commerce site’s visibility, and exactly how the algorithms measure SEO, here are some tips to put it into practice:
- Post content consistently - Don’t be duped into valuing quantity over quality, but do remember that an inconsistent posting schedule on your e-commerce site’s blog can hamper your SEO. Regularly publish relevant, high-quality content that engages your audience to attract backlinks and improve your site's authority.
- Create backlink partnerships - If you’re struggling to generate backlinks, create partnerships with other e-commerce sites or relevant blogs in your store’s niche. In return for you linking to their content on your site, they’ll link to yours, improving both your site’s SEO and visibility.
- Make content evergreen - You’ll want to craft content that remains relevant and stands the test of time. This is because evergreen content remains valuable for readers long after it's published, attracting sustained traffic and engagement. This all contributes to your site's authority and SEO in the long term.
- Prioritize site speed and layout - Ironically, websites that load quickly and are easy to navigate keep users around for longer, leading them to rank higher in search results. Optimize images, reduce unnecessary plugins, and use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to improve your site's loading speed. On top of this, create a clear site map and include relevant links in pages to help users get around.
- Optimize descriptions and titles - The information on your product pages, including descriptions and titles, needs to be unique, descriptive, and optimized with relevant keywords. Quality product pages will help search engines understand your products, not only improving their visibility but also helping you target customers who are likely to convert. No text on your site is insignificant when it comes to SEO.
- Utilize schema markup - Schema markup is the code on your pages that provides search engines with important information about your products, and your business as a whole. This structured data helps with categorization, and it means Google can present rich results, which are extra pieces of information about your sight that attract more clicks.
- Consult/employ an expert - Consider seeking guidance from seasoned professionals or, if you have the resources, hire an experienced SEO specialist to guide your strategies. These individuals’ insights and expertise can provide direction, and ensure your SEO efforts are worth your time and money.
- Monitor your site stats - Keep track of your site's performance using analytics tools, which, depending on your plan, are often built into your site host’s dashboard. Regularly review and update your strategies to align with your goals and improve your stats. While optimum review cycles vary, look over your SEO strategy every 3-6 months and make relevant adjustments to stay ahead of the
A Note on Search Engine Algorithms
When it comes to improving online visibility, SEO is a major tool in your arsenal. However, the highly competitive landscape online, especially where in-demand keywords are concerned, often means that top SERP spots are permanently taken by market leaders.
This situation makes it all the more challenging for small and new businesses that want to lay claim to top positions. You’ll need to align your e-commerce site with keywords and niches that are commonly searched for, but still easy to rank in. Of course, this is much easier said than done.
Not to mention, search engine algorithms are incredibly complex and regularly updated, sometimes making their ranking decisions completely indecipherable to regular users and business owners. Due to this, your SEO efforts, however time-consuming, may not provide instant or visible results, and this can lead you to the false conclusion that it’s all been for nothing.
With all this in mind, your SEO strategy needs to be relevant to your niche, yet easily adaptable and focused on long-term goals. Don’t forget that, because of search engine algorithms’ unpredictability and the competitiveness they promote between businesses, desirable results might take a significant amount of time and resources to achieve.
In Conclusion…
Visibility is essential for the growth and continued success of your e-commerce store. With increased exposure, your site will get more clicks and more opportunities to convert customers. Search Engine Optimization stands as the cornerstone for achieving and maintaining this visibility.
SEO ensures that your e-commerce site stands out in the crowded digital realm through several strategies. From the significance of user experience and readability to the vital role of security and local SEO, there are a variety of factors you’ll need to consider when optimizing your site.
However, SEO is an ongoing process that requires a great deal of attention and monitoring. While overthinking it and making frequent changes to your strategy can pose problems, once you’ve implemented the fundamentals, you’ll need to monitor your stats and shift focus if something isn’t providing results.
By implementing these strategies and staying on top of your SEO, you can significantly enhance your online visibility. Understand and embrace the SEO’s necessity for your continued success, and you’ll be well on your way to the SERP top spots.
Sources
- https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/ecommerce-answers/what-does-online-visibility-mean-business/#
- https://golocad.com/blog/online-visibility/
- https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ux-design-seo/476959/
- https://s3.amazonaws.com/coach-courses-us/public/theuxschool/uploads/The_Trillion_Dollar_UX_Problem.pdf
- https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/the-importance-of-great-content-in-seo-infographic/544439/
- https://www.engagebay.com/blog/seo-quotes/
- https://comradeweb.com/blog/local-seo-for-ecommerce/
- https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
- https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-are-crawlability-and-indexability-of-a-website/
- https://ahrefs.com/seo/glossary/crawlability#
- https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/12/14/seo-and-cybersecurity-incorporating-cybersecurity-into-your-seo-strategy/
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