Organic traffic has never been easy but is especially difficult for eCommerce. However, if you have read our article, What to Expect With an Enterprise SEO Audit, and took advantage of our eCommerce SEO Audit service you already have better insight into what your site needs to do in order to improve search engine rankings. But how can you execute on those findings?
Part 2 of Echidna’s Roadmap to SEO Success Series dives into just that. We’re breaking down SEO categories and sharing our expert's tips when it comes to how to uncover true growth opportunities.
Keyword Prioritization
Your SEO Audit came back showing numerous keywords that you currently rank for, that your competitors rank for, and that you should consider ranking for. Now you can take all that information and get to work prioritizing your opportunities.
But first, you need to understand which keywords your team should focus on ranking higher for. Several keyword prioritization methods exist (volume, conversion, etc.), so you will need to choose what your brand wants to focus on first based on KPIs.
Start by organizing all your keywords and competitors keywords into three categories:
- Commercial: keywords that show purchasing desire (e.g. “buy braided sandals” “braided sandals for sale”)
- Informational: keywords indicating learning about the product (e.g. “celebrities wearing braided sandals” “trending braided sandals”)
- Navigational: keywords with specific relation to a product, brand, or geography (e.g. “braided sandals h&m,” “braided sandals in Chicago”
Once categorized, organize them by CPC and volume levels. High volume will guarantee higher traffic once you are ranking while high CPC will help boost sales.
Remember: Your list makes up a variety of long-tail keywords (3+ words, oftentimes phrases) which are less competitive and well-known short-tail keywords. While long tails have lower searcher volumes it is also an opportunity to rank faster because they are less competitive. The graphic below does a good job of explaining this concept.
Now it’s time to optimize your pages and create high-quality content.
New SEO Content Creation
Once you have chosen what keywords you want to focus on you can get to work. You’ll want to optimize current product and category pages, but also start creating new content on a regular basis. This could be written, video, or even audio. If you are on the fence about spending time creating new content, consider the study Hubspot did showcasing quantitative research on the matter of how often sites release new content:
When it comes to creating new SEO content, you’ve got two options:
- Create something different.
- Create something better.
Sometimes you’re better off with content that’s completely different. Because it helps your content STAND OUT. Example: If your top keywords show results for lots of list articles, consider writing an article that is not a list.
If you go with option #2, work on publishing content better than what’s already out there. A list of the top 10 spring sandal trends is your competition? Publish a list of 20 or a Definitive Guide to Spring Sandal Trends- you get the idea.
On-Page SEO Optimization
Optimizing current content means working to add your selected keywords into pages. It is fairly straightforward, but watch out for putting repeat content out there. When running an eCommerce store it can be difficult not to duplicate content. Differentiating product descriptions and variations from the manufacturer can take time, but it pays off. Duplicate content can be detrimental to your search rankings.
Ways to execute on-page SEO optimization:
- Page title- This alone is one of the most powerful on-site factors. Make sure it’s optimized!
- Copy- Work to include the keyword a few times throughout your page. Finding the right keyword density can be done with a tool like TextOptimizer.
- URL- Another easy fix that is a huge factor when it comes to on-site optimization. If the page has already been published, consider creating a 301 redirect. Remember, when it comes to search engine optimization, short URLs are preferred. So stick to your keyword or target keyword + one more word (top, guide, report, list, etc)
- Alt-Tags- These are hugely important for eCommerce storefronts, as many have a lot of imagery. Add your keyword into your image’s alt-tag. This allows the search engine to know what the image is about.
- Internal Links- Use your keywords as anchor text and link to internal pages, focus on those pages that may already be ranking well.
Focus on optimizing category and product pages
Category pages and product descriptions are a truly vital part of an eCommerce site's success. Make sure you stick to your branding, make pages easy to scan and use bullet points.
A few other popular on-page SEO optimization tips include:
- Optimize category titles based on your keywords.
- Optimize meta descriptions.
- Add an H1 Tag. Ensure there is only one per page and follow best practices.
- Include a description of the category or product page right below your H1 tag.
- Include internal links within the description.
- Includes video and/or images.
Finally, optimize all content for semantic SEO. These are keywords or phrases related to your target keyword and answer the true intent of your visitor's query.
Usability
If your SEO Audit called out usability errors, you’ll want to dive deeper into this topic to make sure it is fully explored as it can be a major missed opportunity. Making it easy to purchase your products and having proper site structure is a huge advantage when it comes to ranking on SERPs (search engine results pages) or not.
Google has user experience as a ranking factor.
You will increase your traffic and conversions by fixing usability issues.
There are many ways to improve site structure and the overall shopping experience. Echidna’s user experience experts have a service called UX Site Audit which reviews your eCommerce site, tracks visitor behaviors, and lays out an action plan to identify key pain points and areas of opportunity when it comes to usability- but you can also do it internally starting with these two tasks:
- Qualitative Analysis: Analyze each page of the site by performing key user flows on various devices. This will allow for identifying areas for improvement and expose usability issues, dead links, functional errors, etc.
- Quantitative Analysis: Study site analytics and data. Use tools like Google Analytics, Good Tag Manager, HotJar to study the current reporting structure, customer behavior patterns, and key events happening on your site. This will help you understand where issues are in your key user tasks.
Backlinks - Off-Page SEO
Backlinks have stood the test of time with Google’s algorithms and should be part of any site's eCommerce SEO strategy. However, executing on this proves difficult for many eCommerce storefronts.
If you are able to create quality backlinks from other high-ranking sites back to yours, you will be in a great position. Here are 3 popular options to execute on eCommerce storefront backlinking, but there are numerous ones out there today.
- Competitor backlinking- find out who is linking back to those high-ranking competitor sites for the keyword you wish to be ranking for. Use a tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs to run this information for you. Look for those URLs with a domain authority over 60 and gather their contact information to reach out about linking back to your site instead. Once you get your rhythm and know how to properly reach out this is an excellent method, but at first may seem tedious.
- Guest posting and influencer marketing- find sites and influencers in your niche with good domain authority or influencers and offer to guest post for them or write a post about them and your product.
- Brand mentions- oftentimes your brand is mentioned and not linked back to your site. Find those sites and reach out, asking for them to add the link back to your site. To find these sites type in the search term (this could be your name, your business’ name, the products you sell (if unique) or a combination). Then after the search term put ‘-inurl:’ followed by your domain. In the future, you can set up a Google alert to directly email you as mentions are published.
Talk to the eCommerce SEO Experts
If your brand is working towards improving SEO efforts, know that it takes time. But by executing on the recommendations of an SEO Audit, you will be well on your way to finding success in meeting KPIs like increased conversion, improved online sales, and customer engagement.
Contact Echidna to learn more about how our team can help with your eCommerce SEO strategy and execution.
Read the whole Roadmap to SEO Success Series.
Part 1: What to Expect With an SEO Audit
Part 3: SEO Maintenance Checklist
