How to do Ecommerce SEO for High Conversion Rates?

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Ecommerce stores have become one of the most preferred destinations for people to shop. It allows buyers to shop from anywhere and anytime with the help of their digital devices.

This change in users’ behaviour has increased the expectations of website owners for a greater flow of visitors to their stores. However, the reality can be a bit different if your online store is not optimized with a proper SEO strategy.

In this blog, we will discuss 20 key SEO practices that can help your ecommerce store convert visitors into paying customers. 

Let’s start,

What do you mean by SEO and its significance to ecommerce stores?

The full form of SEO unfolds as search engine optimization. It is a set of integrated practices that aims to lift the ranking position of a website on search engine result pages—for example, Google’s SERP.

So, what if it ranks higher list, you might ask? Well, the reason for doing so is simple- to make your product and services more findable by your target audiences. When your brand ranks higher, it will be more easily spotted by the users, allowing them to click and visit your ecommerce website. This will lead to increased traffic and more chances for converting them to paying customers.

SEO provides many benefits to digital store owners. One of the critical aspects of SEO that stands out is its ability to modify your website for a better user experience. Websites that provide a better browsing experience to their visitors see a notable rise in the conversion rate.

Now that we have a basic understanding of SEO and its importance to online stores, let us discuss the practices.

20 Key SEO Practices To Boost Ecommerce Conversion Rate

1. Conduct a thorough keyword research:

Keyword research is one of the most critical aspects of SEO for ecommerce websites. You can understand keywords as the popular terms or phrases your target audiences use to find products related to yours.

This approach can help you find the exact reason that motivates the user to search on Google or any other search engine. The reason can be to gain simple information or to complete a purchase. When you know the real intention behind every search of your target audiences, you can create content that guides or allows them to complete their undertakings.

Keywords can be added to the web content, blogs, or the description pages of an online store for better targeting and reach. There are many ways by which you can search keywords for ecommerce SEO. But in this, we will discuss how you can do your keyword research with Google Ad’s keyword planner. Let’s get straight into it.

  • To use Google Keyword Planner, you first need to create a Google Ad account. If you don’t know what that is, simply click on this link, “The Basic Guide to Google Ads,” to know.
  • Once you have completed the steps, you will directed to the interface of Google Keyword Planner.
  • Here, click the option of Tools on the left-hand side of your screen and click on Planning and then Keywords Planner.
  • Now, you will be able to see the home interface of the Google Keyword Planner. Click on the “Discover new Keywords” option and then type the primary keywords that describe your brand. Once you are done, press the “Get the Results” button.
  • After this, Google Keyword Planner will provide you with related lists of keywords with metrics such as search volumes and competition. Select the keywords that have high search volume but low competition to rank on the search engine result pages.

keyword-research-with-google-planner

2. Modify your product images for a better user experience:

Images play such a crucial role in helping the users get a satisfactory idea of your products in real time. Almost every user looks out for the product images before they decide to buy or not.

For this, optimize your image in a way which highlights the critical details of your products to the visitors. This will help your online store attract and engage customers as much as possible.

Moreover, it also improves the ranking of your store on search engine result pages. When your target visitors spend significant time, it signals to the search engines that your website is of value and interest to the users. This, in turn, leads to higher ranking and visibility for your store.

Below are some of the key methods by which you can optimize your store’s images for better UX and search rankings.

  • Lower the size of your product or other images to enable a fast loading speed for your website.
  • Write alt tags for your images to help search engines and people with disabilities understand the content.
  • Rename your image file with target keywords for better ranking on Google Image search.

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3. Make your website user-friendly:

A user-friendly website is one that inspires the target visitors to engage with your website. This concept not only applies to how your website looks but also to how it functions. Is it able to satisfy the search purpose of the visitors or not? Some of the key aspects of good user-friendly websites are as follows:

  • It should have a visually appealing and responsive web design.
  • A smooth and natural navigational structure of the website.
  • It is quick and easy to use for visitors.
Did you know that you can measure the user-friendliness of your website with the help of factors known as Core Web Vitals?

Core web vitals are metrics used by Google to judge the quality of your website or pages for user experience. They are further divided into 3 areas, which are as follows:

  • Largest Contentful Paint: It calculates the load time of the large blocks of content on your web pages. Slower load time means a less user-friendly browsing experience for the visitors
  • Cumulative Layout Shift: It measures the shift in the interactive or visual elements of your website after the page loads completely. The shift in the elements spoils the browsing experience of the visitors, which, in turn, lowers the user-friendly score of your website.
  • First Input Delay: It is the time that is taken by a website to respond to responses of the users. More time to respond means a bad user experience for your visitors.
  • Pay attention to Long-Tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are those phrases that constitute 3 or more words and are specific in nature. Did you know that a long-tail keyword has more chances to convert than a short-tail one? This is because they are able to attract more qualified traffic to the website as compared to general short-tail keyword searches. So it becomes critical for ecommerce websites to use them to create content that answers these very queries of your target audiences.You can find the long-tail keywords related to your niches with a simple Google search.For Example- Type a general short-tail keyword on the search bar, such as “Dog food” and press the search button. Find the People also search section and collect the long-tail keywords most relevant to your search query.

5. Create a simple URL structure for your website:

A complex and traditional URL structure: www.abcd.com/23/ab/

An SEO-optimized URL structure: www.abcd.com/blogs/SEO/

The first thing to note in the above example is the readability issues with the old URL structure. But when you look at the SEO-optimized one, you can tell exactly the page that this link is going to direct you. In this case, you know that this link will direct you to an SEO blog page.

This SEO approach in the URL can give a basic idea of the linked page. In addition to this, a simple URL is also easier for the users to share within their network, which can help you expand the reach of your brand even further.

6. Use Schema Markups:

Schema markups are the extra information you provide to the search engines in the form of HTML codes. These codes help search engines such as Google or Bing feature extra information about your online stores at the top of their SERP.

For example, search for a “Poutine Recipe” on the Google Search bar, and you will find the information in a rich snippet form. This snippet includes the time taken and rating in a short and crisp manner to help searchers measure the quality of the information.

There are many different types of schema markup, some of which are mentioned below:

  • Review schema
  • Product schema
  • Video schema
  • FAQ Schema

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7. Avoid Duplicate Pages and Content:

Duplicate pages on ecommerce websites can pose a real problem to the user experience of your target audiences. You might have noticed that some online stores simply copy and paste the same description for the related pages or categories. To tell you the truth, this is not a good approach as it impacts the SEO ranking of your store negatively.

Therefore, you should ensure that your web content is written fresh and is able to convey the message to potential customers.

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8. Don’t Let Page Speed Lower The Interest of Your Visitors:

Loading speed of your online store matters when there are many options available for the shoppers to buy from. A slow website can frustrate your visitors to look for other options available to complete their desired action. This not only can reduce the chances of conversion but also impact the search ranking of your store negatively. So, it becomes critical to pay attention to the loading speed of your website or web pages. 

Some of the practices that you can consider to lower the loading speed of your website are as follows:

  • Maintain a lower number of images on each of your web pages.
  • Decrease the number of redirects and HTTP requests on your website.
  • Use fewer social media widgets.
  • Make use of the Content Delivery system for a faster response time to the users.
  • Lower the size of the images added on web pages.

9. Content Matters for Ecommerce:

Content is king, and this is the golden rule that has helped many online businesses engage and convert their target customers. The Content has the power to educate your target audiences and encourage them to buy products from your website. In addition to the UX aspect, it also enables your store to rank higher on the search engine result pages. So, it becomes crucial to create content for your ecommerce store that provides the information your users are looking for. A good quality content has the following characteristics:

  • It is able to provide in-depth knowledge and analysis on the topic to the readers.
  • It should not contain any grammatical or spelling mistakes.
  • It should be written by someone with extensive knowledge of the products.
  • It provides the opinion of the products to the users for better decision-making.

You can create content such as blogs, FAQs, product descriptions, or newsletters for better user engagement.

10. External Link Building for Ecommerce:

Link building is critical to establish authority and the credibility of your ecommerce website. When you build a link on reputed third-party websites, you signal that your website is credible and of value to the users.

And when Google sees your website as a trusted and credible source of information, it will rank your website better. Below are some of the practices that you can consider for link building.

  • Create high-quality articles or guest posts that motivate related websites in your niche to link back to your own.
  • Share your content on social media platforms.
  • Craft infographics and share them online for back backlinks.

11. Add a Sitemap:

A sitemap is a file on your ecommerce store that includes information about all the pages, images, videos or content. Google uses these files to crawl and index the content of your stores in its huge database.

You can use automated tools such as Google Webmaster to create a proper sitemap for your website. So, make sure that your store’s sitemap contains all the pages, such as product, category and other important pages.

generating-sitemaps-with-google-search-console

12. Social Sharing:

Contrary to the belief of many people, social sharing does impact the performance of the SEO of websites, but indirectly. Sharing on social media platforms generates social signals, which impacts the ranking of your store positively.

In addition to this, the content that you post on social platforms can attract backlinks, which further contributes to the success of your SEO campaign. Create content that hooks the users to your content and encourages them to visit and engage with your brand.

13. Add Chatbots:

Do you know the secret to engaging your target visitors to your ecommerce store? It is to give a browsing experience to your customers that allows them to complete their desired action easily.

For this, you can optimize your store for AI-based chatbots that can answer the queries of the visitors in a fast and efficient manner. Doing so can enable them to continue their digital journey, and for you, it will reduce the bounce rate.

14. Add More Internal Links:

Internal links are the hyperlinks that link the related web pages of your website with each other. This practice is crucial as it helps website visitors to land on pages which might be of interest or value to them.

Internal linking improves the user experience and, thus, the search ranking of your ecommerce store. You can link related product pages to each other for a cohesive browsing experience for your target audiences.

15. Build Trust With an About Us Page:

The “About Us” page can generate a sense of trust and credibility in the minds of the users. When your target users know the value you bring to the table, they will be more likely to engage and convert. Therefore, create an About Us page that showcases your journey, vision, achievements, awards and important information to win over their trust and deal.

16. Add Product Recommendations:

You should suggest popular or the best-selling products of your store to your visitors. This will keep them hooked to your websites and will help reduce the bounce rates. It is a human tendency to explore things of interest that are trending for good reasons. In addition to this, ensure that your product pages also leverage the concept of cross-selling and up-selling to close a big deal for better profits.

17. Modify Pages for Out-of-Stock Products:

There can be product pages on your online store which may show the unavailability of the product to your visitors. In this situation, you can add an option for an email exchange where you can notify the subscribers when the product is available again. This approach can help you save a conversion chance that otherwise would have been lost if you hadn’t optimized.

18. Get an SSL Certificate:

SSL certificate can protect your ecommerce website from malware attacks. This aspect, if not taken care of, can risk the sensitive data of your loyal customers, which reduces the trust of your customers. Google also ranks the website that has enabled SSL certificates for safe and secure browsing.

get-ssl-certificate

19. Optimize for Mobile:

Don’t waste the chance of conversions by not paying attention to the aspect of mobile usability for your website. You might know that today, the major chunk of traffic for online stores comes mainly from mobile devices. So, tap the visitors coming from mobile devices by offering a browsing experience to your visitors that is at par with the desktop version.

For this, you can optimize your online store for responsive design, which can help your website adjust as per the size of the users’ screen.

20. Meta description and title:

Meta descriptions and titles are the content that gets featured on the search engine result pages. They help the searchers and the search engines understand the basic context of your web pages. Optimizing the same with the target keywords can help you increase the click-through rate and chances to convert them.

Final Words!!

In the end, an SEO approach can help you move the wheel of profits for your ecommerce store. Read the above-mentioned SEO practices and try to implement those in your store for the desired result.
SEO is an integrated approach and works even better when you take other important practices into account. So, if you are someone looking to enhance the conversion rate of your store, optimize for search engine optimization today.

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