14 Essential Ecommerce SEO Strategies

  • Chris L
  • Updated Feb 31, 2024

Investing in eCommerce SEO strategies is critical to the success of an online business. If you are looking to increase the visitors to your website and grow your business, then SEO is the way to go. In this post, we look at the best eCommerce SEO strategies for maximizing revenue. These strategies will not only generate more traffic, but they also make it easier for website visitors to find exactly what they want and convert into a sale.

14 Essential Strategies for Ecommerce SEO

1. Keyword research

Making a list of keywords is the first step in any effective SEO strategy. These are words that your target audience frequently types into Google. By creating content for these keywords, your page will show up when your audience uses Google.

2. Site architecture

This is something you should invest time in when it comes to SEO. The architecture of your site will have significant impact on how well your pages are served by Google. Optimizing your site architecture is all about making sure that content, images, videos etc are grouped logically so as not to confuse crawlers.

3. On-page SEO

Content is the cornerstone of your on-page SEO. It's what search engines index and it's more than just a collection of words, it needs to be structured in such a way that Google will reward.

4. Local SEO

If you have any physical stores, you will want to implement some form of local SEO. Local results appear when someone in a local area uses Google to search for your service or product.

5. Content marketing

Content marketing is about creating and sharing quality content that will appeal to your target audience. It can be seen as a way of establishing authority in a niche or industry, but it also helps to rank for specific keywords and get found by your customers.

6. Link building

Backlinks are links from other web pages to yours. They are seen by Google as authority signals, which is why they positively reward websites with a strong backlink profile.

7. Make sure all of your images are optimized

You'll want to make sure that all of your photos, infographics, and other images are properly optimized for the web.

8. Create dynamic meta descriptions

The Meta tag is a small piece of text that describes what your website is about. It's a snippet of text which will appear in search engine results, and should be short enough for people to read it at a glance.

9. Consider using 301 redirects

This is the simplest form of redirecting traffic from one URL (website address) to another URL through code implementation.

10. Prioritize speed

Another factor when it comes to search engine rankings is speed. It's important to deliver content as quickly as possible without any errors or delays, so both your visitors and the search engines can enjoy easy access to what you have on offer.

11. Drive social signals

It's important to have a social media presence and create content that will be shared. The more shares, the better your rankings will be in search engines.

12. Stay updated with upcoming changes

Google is always updating their ranking algorithm. As such, it's important to stay updated and be aware of what they are changing. What worked in 2008 doesn't always work as well today.

13. Create content that's relevant

Content is king... That's an old saying in the world of SEO for a reason. Some people don't write content that pertains to their niche and it will reflect in their rankings. The content should provide value to the reader.

14. Monitor your rankings

You should track how well your efforts are paying off by monitoring your ranking. For example, you can use various SEO tools, like Keyword Tracker, which tracks rankings for each individual keyword.

16 Advanced Strategies for Ecommerce SEO

1. Use Google Search Console and Google Analytics

Google maintains two of the most important tools for analyzing your site: Google Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) and Google Analytics.

2. Get your URL structure in order

The URL structure of your site will play a big role in the way that Google sees it and ranks it. When you create posts or pages on your site, make sure to include keywords at the end of the URL.

3. Implement schema markup

Schema markup is a way to provide search engines with more information about the content of your site, making it easier for them to index and rank.

4. Use more headings

Headings help to break up the content on your page so that it is easier for visitors and search engines alike to navigate.

5. Canonical tags

To avoid search engine duplicate content, you should take the time to do some technical SEO. A canonical tag is an HTML element that indicates which version of the website should be shown in the search results.

6. Optimize for featured snippets

Featured snippets are a new and valuable way to be found on Google. Research has shown that upwards of 90% of people will click on the featured snippet if it looks relevant to their search query.

7. Address duplicate / thin content issues

Duplicate content is a common issue for ecommerce sites. When duplicate content occurs, it can be difficult to rank well in search engines because Google may penalize the site due to having so many versions of the same thing available.

8. Upgrade existing content with fresh content

Before you start creating more content for your website, you may want to upgrade your existing content. New content takes a long time to rank, so you can get quicker wins by concentrating on the content you've already written.

9. HTTPS/SSL

When you anticipate fully launching your ecommerce site, make sure it's secure with a SSL certificate. Google has released a statement that they will give preferential treatment to websites using an encrypted connection in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

10. Fix 404s

404s usually happen when people click on links that were never published, or if the file is missing from the server.

11. Use breadcrumb navigation

Breadcrumb navigation is a type of website structure that displays the location within a site, usually with an indentation. This will help your visitors navigate easily and improve their experience on the website.

12. XML sitemap and robots.txt file

The XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs on your website. The robots.txt tells search engine crawlers how to access and index content on your site, it's structured like an instruction manual for bots.

13. Don't forget about mobile

Design for Mobile First! It's not enough to optimize your website for desktop devices anymore - now you need to pay attention to how it looks on smaller screens.

14. Add "content features" to your page

Content features are an often overlooked SEO strategy that can give you a major boost in rankings. They're things like adding calculators, summaries, lists, and credible data.

15. Optimize content for keyword relevance

You should include the right LSI keywords on your page, which are words related to the main target keyword. This will tell Google how relevant your page is for that topic.

16. Optimize for voice search

Voice search is the future, and if you're not optimizing for it now then you could be losing potential traffic. It's good practice to think about how people word things differently when using voice search.

Final Thoughts on Ecommerce SEO Strategies

So there we have it - the top eCommerce SEO strategies you need to know about. It's important to pay attention to each one, instead of picking and choosing where to spend your resources. Get it right, and you will be rewarded with organic leads on a consistent basis. It's important to note that SEO is a long-term game, so commit to your strategy and don't give up after a few weeks.