As an online store owner, SEO is absolutely vital for growing your business. Generating organic traffic is how you increase visitors and boost sales, so it’s not something you can neglect.
But for novice ecommerce entrepreneurs, perfecting your SEO can be a struggle. Need some help nailing your ecommerce SEO? Read on for some essential tips on generating organic traffic for your ecommerce website.
Build your website with your customer in mind
The primary goal of search engines is to put searchers first by meeting their needs, providing value, and answering their queries. Consequently, the websites that are ranked highly on SERPs are those that put their customers first.
As such, you should create your website with your customer in mind. Look at the landing page(s) they will arrive on when they visit your online store.
What information and features should these provide that immediately meet your customers’ needs? Positive reviews, product collections and features, and special offers all play a part in shaping and guiding your customer’s journey.
Use your site’s web analytics to better understand how your shoppers use your online store. Heat maps show you which elements of your landing page(s) your visitors look at, so use these to amend them accordingly. Identify where your customers focus the most on the page, then place key information there to keep them locked into your online store. Don’t forget that your ecomz account is also equipped with a dashboard that can help determine your visitors’ activity.
And while adding the right elements can boost your SEO, removing elements that distract your visitors can also be beneficial. Implementing a clean, intuitive homepage that’s easily navigable keeps visitors on your page, another important factor that enhances your SEO.
Speed up your site
Site speed is a major ranking factor for websites, especially in a mobile-first age. A slow page speed doesn’t provide value to searchers, and as a consequence it will drag your ranking down. And it makes sense — a slow website is agonizing to use, so why would search engines favor it?
First, check your site speed online to determine its load speed. Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule for optimum site speed. Google recommends three seconds, but the actual load speed varies from industry to industry. However, what’s certain is that the longer the load speed, the higher the chance of your visitors bouncing.
Make small changes to speed up your site. A reliable hosting platform is a good start and that’s we offer here at ecomz. In addition, most decent ecommerce platforms provide this as a standard but for more specific changes you can make to your website, click here.
Craft a strong content silo
Content Silo is the backbone of your ecommerce SEO!
Ancillary content creates a strong internal link profile that guides prospective customers back to your online store. Blog posts, product walkthroughs, style guides — all of these create touchpoints for visitors to discover your brand.
Do some keyword researches around your industry to identify what your customers are searching for online. Seeing what queries your target market are making online helps you build out your content strategy, guiding you in the topics you write about.
Create an editorial calendar that educates customers about your brand, product or service, as well as other related topics. This should be high-quality and beneficial to your readers, with actionable takeaways they can use.
It’s highly important to correctly add all product content as it can positively impact your SEO! That’s not all, a good translation is also beneficial if you happen to have a multicultural store like the ones we offer here at ecomz.
Strive for long tail keywords
Short tail keywords are low-hanging fruit that are valuable in driving traffic to your site. But while these popular keywords related to your industry play a role in your ecommerce SEO, they won’t necessarily drive qualified traffic to your store.
Qualified traffic entails those visitors that are querying search engines with the intention of making a purchase, and it is long tail keywords that drive this.
For example, if you’re trying to rank for “maxi dress”, you’re up against a lot of competition and you won’t see visitors that are necessarily at the buying stage.
But making your keywords more specific, for example “red maxi dress evening wear”, shows your customers (and search engines) that you cater to that particular query.
Identify those long-tail keywords that matter to your business and work them into your product pages to show search engines that your website delivers on these queries.
Create a customer community
Your ecommerce store’s SEO is not based on your website factors alone. Sophisticated search engines rely on a plethora of offsite elements to rank your business in SERPs.
Social proof from review sites, backlinks, social engagement and shares — these all signal to search engines that your website has a powerful online presence. As a consequence, they view your business as one with value, boosting your SERP rankings.
But you can’t get these elements by yourself. You have to work for them by creating a wide, engaged community that delivers them for you.
Work on your social strategy by reaching out to your customers, encouraging them to interact with your brand by liking and sharing your posts and activities. User-generated content is one way to achieve this, as are social competitions and giveaways.
Invite your customers to leave reviews after buying with you on Trustpilot and Google Reviews, with discount codes offered as an extra incentive. These factors all go towards improving your page ranking by driving more organic traffic to your website.
Ecommerce SEO might seem a daunting subject, but it’s not impossible. SEO rules are straightforward and easy to pick up, and there are dozens of resources available online to help you learn the ropes, one of them is right here on ecomz.
Put your customer first and create content that benefits them as well as a community that engages them. Follow these tips, and witness your organic traffic gradually increasing.
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About
Ecomz is an award-winning ecommerce platform driven by a passionate team of experts and innovators in the world of ecommerce and backed by institutional investors such as the World Bank and leading VCs in the region. It is powered by advanced store-builder capabilities, aesthetical CX-focused themes, a comprehensive suite of AI and machine learning-powered tools, in addition to innovative multichannel integrations. It provides its clients with unparalleled local support and guidance focusing on a professional, transparent and growth-driven approach.
Ecomz operates in more than 55 countries, serving more than 7,000 merchants helping them generate over $50M in sales. Named 2018 Top 5 B2B website by Seamless Conference, 2017 Top 10 Business by ArabNet, Ecomz has also been recognized by Google, Disrupt San Francisco (TechCrunch) and MIT Silicon Valley Program for its achievements and has been awarded by the 2018 Touch Innovation Program (TIP) and BLC Bank’s 2018 Brilliant Lebanese Award (BLA).
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