Alma Causey – Dotdigital https://dotdigital.com Thu, 19 Oct 2023 08:30:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 https://mkr1en1mksitesap.blob.core.windows.net/staging/2021/11/favicon-61950c71180a3.png Alma Causey – Dotdigital https://dotdigital.com 32 32 8 ways to improve the SEO of your ecommerce website https://dotdigital.com/blog/8-ways-to-improve-the-seo-of-your-ecommerce-website/ Sun, 16 Jun 2019 23:00:00 +0000 https://dot.tiltedchair.co/8-ways-to-improve-the-seo-of-your-ecommerce-website/ 37.5% of the traffic to ecommerce websites comes from search, as revealed by SEMrush. That’s a sizeable chunk that cannot be ignored. Let’s suppose a prospect is searching for a product that you provide. How do you think he or she will find your site? Via a search engine. The only catch is that your ecommerce site should be ranking high in the search results because 75% of people will never scroll past the first results page. All this brings us to SEO, the key to ranking your website higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and boosting your revenue. So, without further ado, let’s walk you through 8 practical ways to improve your SEO:

1. Hunt down the right keywords

The right keywords aren’t always low-hanging fruit, easily available and ready to be used in your content. If anything, these take some digging around. Aim to find long-tail keywords that can assist you in ranking high for niche-specific topics. A long-tail keyword is a term that consists of three or more words. These keywords attract a narrowed down target audience. For example, if you have a store that sells pet accessories, don’t target ‘pet accessories’ as the keyword. Instead, use a long-tail keyword like ‘pet accessories under $100.’ Think along the lines of user queries. Try to be specific and type in conversational queries for finding out the right keywords. If you find keyword research difficult, consider working with an SEO Marketing Agency.

2. Create blog content

Blogging for your ecommerce site is the recipe for SEO success. Research confirms that companies that blog get 434% more indexed pages than those that don’t. Hence, you shouldn’t just incorporate keywords in your web content and product descriptions only. Instead, you should also write blog posts around the long-tail keywords that you research. While you’re at it, create engaging meta descriptions for each post that you write. Meta descriptions are small descriptions that show under a blog post’s title in the search engine. An attention-grabbing description will urge readers to click on your content and read it, driving leads your way.

3. Fix site errors

Site errors can negatively impact your  SEO. For instance, a 404 error code tells Google and other search engines that the page doesn’t exist. Therefore, it doesn’t index it. Use tools such as Screaming Frog to unearth website errors. This free tool scans your websites’ links, CSS, script, images, and more from an SEO lens. Following the examination, Screaming Fog delivers a summary of the errors, missing header tags, duplicate pages, etc. Once you get a hold of these errors, correct them quickly to boost site usability, which can help to improve your conversion rate.

4. Pay attention to site speed

In 2018, Google confirmed that speed was an important ranking influencer. Besides impacting your ranking, site speed also affects user experience. Slow speed will discourage a visitor from spending time on your website, culminating in an increased bounce rate and poor SEO results. Research estimates that a second’s delay in page load could lead to a loss of $2.5 million in sales annually. Moreover, 53% of mobile users abandon a site when it takes longer than three seconds to load. To this end, take steps to improve your site’s speed. Use tools like Web Page Test to find out your ecommerce site’s page load speed. Then, take steps to improve load speed, for example, by optimizing your images to reduce their size.

5. Reduce the architectural depth of your site

Your site’s architecture reveals its structure – the way it branches out. For instance, the home page goes to the product category, which then leads to a sub-category. This may dive further into other pages. However, in-depth choices can confuse the reader and minimize site usability. Such a setting also buries a smaller category section. The best way to design your site architecture for enhancing eCommerce SEO is to construct a horizontal architecture, which limits the vertical depth of pages. Try to develop a shallow site architecture where pages are located in one or two subcategories. In this way, Google is able to crawl and index your site quickly and easily.

6. Encourage social traffic to your ecommerce site

Interactions on social media can help drive branded search your way while increasing your visibility. As you grow an engaged presence on social, you will develop an active community of fans, which can drive good traffic your way. In fact, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the three leading social platforms that contribute 90% of all social traffic to websites and blogs. With the increased traffic and engagement via social, you can boost your site’s authenticity, which takes your SEO game up by a notch.

7. Take care of on-page SEO

On-page SEO covers optimizing your site’s pages for search engines optimization. One of the main steps here is mentioned above: writing compelling meta-descriptions with the keyword in them. Additionally, use click magnet words in your title tag as Backlinko suggests. For example, try ‘X% off’ or ‘lowest price’ for boosting your click-through rates (CTR). Similarly, add click-encouraging words in your product descriptions as well. Try words like ‘items on sales’, ‘free shipping,’ and other such words to maximize CTR. Lastly, for your blog content, create awesome content with 1000+ words and add your keyword 3-5 times throughout.

8. Pay attention to local SEO

86% of consumers take to the internet to search for a local business. Consequently, you need to pay attention to local SEO to show up in your prospect’s search. To this end, set up a Google My Business account. This account will log your business’s details into Google’s database and shows your store in local search results. Next, try to get some local links to your site, also known as backlinks. You can get backlinks from review sites and listings such as Yellow Pages. Any coverage from local news outlets, magazines, PR releases, and other local websites and media can also give you backlinks. These links boost your search engine ranking by signaling to Google that you are authentic and known in your area. Final thoughts Improving your ecommerce SEO demands work. However, it’s worth all the effort and time you invest in it, and it will help you with your long term strategy goals To quickly recap, focus on local and on-page SEO, rectify any errors on your site, and use keywords in your content.]]>