eCommerce SEO: 5 Tips that Will Increase Online Revenue
eCommerce SEO: 5 Tips that Will Increase Online Revenue
If you’re like most of the eCommerce businesses we work with, one of your primary goals every quarter is to increase online revenue. While a beautiful website and a solid marketing automation platform are great ways to attract new website visitors and nurture prospects and returning customers, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is increasingly important to the success of your business. Below are five SEO tips to increase your eCommerce sales this quarter and beyond!
1. Title Tags for Product Pages – Make them Unique
Do not duplicate title tags across two or more product pages. While it may be tempting to reuse keywords, try using keyword phrases(three or more words that make up a relevant string of text). If you think about your own search habits, you may realize that you hardly ever type in one or two keywords to find what you’re looking for. Google search crawlers may prioritize well-ranking keywords, but they still take keyword phrases into account – and they’re often less competitive.
2. Make Mobile-Friendliness a Must
Since late 2016, Google search rankings place heavy precedence on mobile-first indexing. What this means is that Google will index the mobile version of websites first, meaning that contents, page speed, structured data, meta tags, etc. on mobile will be used as a deicing factor for search rankings of both desktop and mobile. You might be asking yourself why this mobile-first mentality has risen to the top of Google’s ranking factors –this is because mobile searches have overtaken desktop searches. That being said, avoid using Flash, making text readable without zooming and making website content responsive to screen size.
3. Add Rich Snippets with Schema Markup
Schema markup and enabling rich snippets increases the visibility of your products in Google search rankings. Through providing more detail such as reviews, recipes and the like, you may not be increasing SERP rankings, but you’re giving search engines a way of understanding your content and the opportunity to display comprehensive information. Include schema markups like products, pricing, ratings, reviews and key takeaways.
4. Leave a Trail of Breadcrumbs with Optimized Permalinks
One aspect of Search Engine Optimization that marketers maybe likely to ignore is the power of page permalinks and structure. When it comes to product pages, you need to make their links self-explanatory and organized. Without doing this, you’re risking high bounce rates, increased abandoned carts and lower ranking. For example: www.store.com/category/www.store.com/cateogry/sub-category www.store.com/sategroy-subcategory/product-nameFurtherbe sure to use breadcrumbs to improve the user’s understanding of where on your site they are.
5. Use Permanent 301 redirects for Expired Product URLS
Permanent 301 redirects are an excellent way to refer search engines to old content that has been moved as a result of website updates or redesigns. Page rank and authority, traffic value, etc. are all moved to the detour page, which is usually a similar product page or dynamically generated message pane (think “This product is no longer available for sale”) If a product expires, content is moved or link structed is changed without redirect their pages, you risk presenting a 404 Not Found page – leading to decreased traffic and search ranking. Through employing a comprehensive and effective eCommerce SEO strategy, you’re giving your site a stronger position to increase online revenue, drive greater website traffic and build brand awareness.
