Ecommerce SEO for Beginners: Your Quick Guide to Ecommerce SEO

As a business owner, boosting your website traffic and sales can help you grow your operation. Whether you have your own website or own a shop on a platform like Etsy, ecommerce search engine optimization (SEO) can help boost your company to the top of searches. But where do you begin?

In this quick guide to ecommerce SEO for beginners, we’ll cover:

• What is ecommerce SEO?
• Why does your ecommerce SEO strategy matter?
• How to develop a solid ecommerce SEO strategy

Keep reading to learn more!

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Keep Exploring: 4 Common Ecommerce SEO Problems (+Fixes)

What is ecommerce SEO?

Ecommerce SEO uses standard SEO tactics to help your ecommerce business appear in relevant searches. This tactic helps ecommerce companies rank for relevant queries, like product searches, and drive traffic looking to buy products.

Why does your ecommerce SEO strategy matter?

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What do you do when looking for a particular product? You Google it — just like 63% of buyers do before purchasing.

Landing in the top spot on the search engine results page (SERP) can help people find your product or service. Ecommerce SEO can help you be the first relevant site, increasing your overall organic traffic. With SEO, you can also:

• Gain exposure in search engines: You want to be the best site for the customer’s needs. When users look for a product, 65% will focus on relevancy to their search rather than picking a company name they recognize. Optimizing for search engines give you an opportunity to drive people who need your products, regardless of your brand recognition.
• Rank higher for relevant keywords: If you don’t have an ecommerce SEO strategy in place, you won’t rank for valuable keywords — that means you’ll miss out on traffic. Ecommerce SEO helps you rank for conversion-driving terms and earn more revenue for your business.
• Help your business longevity: For an online shop, staying in business is simple — more traffic equals more sales, leading to business longevity. Optimizing your website for search engines allows you to continually drive traffic to your website, which means continuous sales and revenue. 
• Build a user-friendly website: Investing in ecommerce SEO means you’re investing in creating a better user experience on your website. A better user experience leads to people spending more time learning about your products and then buying them.

Ecommerce SEO for beginners: How to develop a solid ecommerce SEO strategy

Now that you know the perks of SEO, it’s time to take advantage of this strategy. Your products may have a space on the Internet, but are they easy to find? 

If you want to improve your products’ performance in search engines, follow these tips:

1. Use the right keywords

A key component of beginner ecommerce SEO is keywords.

And how do you find the best keywords? Research, of course!

A keyword research tool will help you find the right terms for your website. You can search your product keywords, for example, to find related terms to target.

Once you identify relevant keywords, integrate them into your pages. Remember to be tasteful in your keyword usage. You want to incorporate all keywords naturally into the text — don’t stuff them in or use incorrect phrasing. 

2. Create a simple site structure

Making your website user-friendly is ecommerce 101. So, where should you start? Your website navigation is a good area of focus to look at if you want to improve the user experience on your website.

Your navigation should be organized and easy to use. Use headings and subheadings to help categorize your products and allow your audience to find what they need easily. Is there a certain category tab or product that is the most popular among users? Make that front and center. 

The easier your customers can navigate your site — and, more importantly, find what they need — the higher the likelihood they will return and make purchases

3. Optimize your homepage and product category pages

Think of your homepage as your company’s first impression. It’s where people will go to look for products and learn about your offerings. You’ll often drive people to your homepage to learn what you offer.

So, what do you put on a homepage?

You’ll want to include product photos, calls to action, and social proof. Including all these elements can help boost engagement on your website and drive people to shop for your products.

But what about your product category pages?

Your category pages and checkout pages should have the same warming factor. Use images to highlight the products in those categories, integrate reviews to build confidence, and use CTAs to invite people to shop.

4. Start a blog

A blog can go a long way regarding an ecommerce site. Incorporating a blog into your site can give you more opportunities to expand on SEO. 

Blogs show a more personable side to your business and give your customers advice or information. You can also use your blog to explain a product in detail, encouraging others to make a purchase.

Creating blog posts related to industry topics can drive valuable traffic to your website and help you drive future customers.

Let WebFX help with ecommerce marketing

Growing your ecommerce business starts with a strong ecommerce SEO strategy. If you want to boost your revenue through ecommerce SEO, WebFX can help. Our ecommerce SEO services help you optimize your presence in search engines to drive more valuable traffic to your business.

We’ve already drive $10 billion in revenue for clients, so we know what it takes to drive revenue for your ecommerce business, too.

Ready to start driving more revenue? Contact us online or call 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist today!