Ecommerce SEO
We recently met with a new client about his ecommerce website. He had spent a lot of money on it and in the following 12 months he had only got 2 orders from it. The site has numerous issues and when we asked what his ecommerce SEO strategy was he had no idea. SEO had never even been spoken about with his previous “developer”. Any developer worth their weight in gold will want to talk to you about SEO, especially on an ecommerce website. We can’t stress enough how important it is to have an Ecommerce SEO plan. Your ranking will play a huge part in your sales, you need to rank higher than your competitors.
To be successful in online sales you can do 4 things. Do nothing and hope for the best. Pour all your money into PPC (Pay Per Click). Pour all your money into SEO or implement a proper ecommerce SEO strategy, and compliment it with planned PPC campaigns. In this blog we will focus on some SEO tips, however we recommend SEO plus PPC campaigns.
Research
You always need to start with research. Look at what your competition is doing and what keywords and phrases they are ranking for on Google. After you have completed your research you will need to plan a strategy and how you will implement it. You need to be constantly testing your strategy and make any changes to your implementation as required. Also don’t forget that Google’s algorithm is an ever changing thing and updates to penguin and panda can change the SEO landscape overnight.
Website Basics
With any website you need to have the basics covered for good SEO. You need to have a proper website structure set up. The page structure needs to be correct, including headings, content, images and links. I don’t know how many times I have audited a website and seen no proper page headings set up. Simple basic things like that are easily overlooked. Don’t forget about setting up proper internal links as well.
Content
A big mistake we see a lot is that websites copy word for word the product descriptions from the manufacturers of their products. This won’t do your SEO any good as you are copying content that someone has already published. Google doesn’t like duplicate content and will penalise your website. Adding fresh content to the site in the form of blogs and articles keeps your site fresh and current. Big Hint: Google loves new content.
Website Speed and Mobile Devices
Make your website fast and mobile friendly. The quicker the better. Google now gets more search traffic through mobile devices than traditional desktops. Make sure your site works correctly on mobile devices. Google offers free tools to test speed and mobile device compatibility.
Ultimately to get the best results you need a comprehensive Ecommerce SEO plan combined with planned PPC campaigns. You can’t ignore either.
If your Ecommerce website isn’t getting the traffic and sales you want, contact DNA to see what we can do to help you.
Written by David Stansfield - 21 September 2016