For a trillion dollar industry that’s growing by double-digit percentages each year, an e-commerce site still has to do a lot of work to find and grow their consumer base.
That’s where SEO comes in. An e-commerce website must make the most of their SEO position in order to get and stay successful.
But Google is constantly changing their SEO rules and even the most seasoned marketing professionals would be hardpressed to keep up with the changes. For a busy e-commerce site, staying on top of SEO is difficult.
But there are some SEO positions that almost always stay the same. Here are five ways to utilize SEO in order to grow an e-commerce site.
1. Write Great Content
While it’s important to focus on improving a site’s SEO position by including content that Google and other search engines will pick up on, that’s completely useless if the consumer is turned off by the language.
Today’s best sites are written with the consumer in mind. The whole point is to write content that compels the user not only to make a purchase and become a customer but to come back time and again.
It’s also really important to keep writing fresh content. A stale site won’t be picked up by search engines and it won’t compel a consumer to come back to visit anytime soon, either.
2. Improve an SEO Position with an Audit
With SEO rules constantly changing, what was once a smart move can now be the wrong move. So it makes sense that having an audit performed will help SEO position by searching out what is no longer working for the e-commerce site.
One way to do that is to perform a business reputation audit.
A decent audit will go much further than checking out the reputation of an e-commerce site. It will check to see how well the site is performing in social media, search engine sites, as well as the number of links found on the site.
3. Include the Right Types of Links
Internal and external links are great for improving a site’s SEO position.
Internal Links
Internal links help users navigate the website better. They’ll also help spread ranking power within the website and help establish which information is most important on the website.
Internal links also build trust between the site and the user. It also can help users navigate to sections of the site that tends to get less traffic and shows the consumer where they should be going next on the site.
However, don’t simply use every internal link on every page. It’s important to show Google that the internal links used are actually important and are leading the consumer to the information they need in order to have the best experience on the e-commerce site.
Using internal links within a site’s blog is an excellent way of helping further along the education the reader is trying to gain. It’s also possible to use internal links within the footer of a page as well.
External Links
External links are links to other websites. While it’s important to keep checking to make sure the external links don’t lead to something nefarious like malware, 404’s, or a disreputable site, external links do a lot more good than harm.
Linking to an external site such as one that deals with scrap metal prices per pound can actually lead to more traffic and possibly more business for an e-commerce site.
External links are also helpful to the readers because it adds value and more information than the original site can sometimes provide. Linking to a well-known, reputable site can also help build trust between the consumer and the original site.
Search engines will also take notice and will most likely reward the e-commerce site in their algorithms. That is if the external links are quality links and not simply there for show.
Lastly, external links show that an e-commerce site is part of a community and not just on a desert island by themselves. They are willing to help others and often that is enough to prompt other businesses to reach out and promote them right back.
4. Utilize Relevant Keywords
No SEO position would be complete without using the right keywords. However, it’s often difficult for e-commerce sites to figure out which keywords work best.
Often a business is thinking like a business and they miss out on the keywords that their consumers are actually using. Knowing how a consumer thinks and what words they use will help improve SEO rankings considerably.
So will making sure that when a consumer types in those keywords or phrases, they will actually find the answers they are looking for. Otherwise, an e-commerce site will find they have a lot of site visitors but not many people actually taking any relevant action.
If that happens, it’s a sign that the wrong keywords are being utilized and they should be changed.
Don’t forget to see how many other competing businesses are also using the same keywords. If there’s too much competition for the same words and phrases, that’s just money, time, and effort down the drain.
5. Increase the E-Commerce Site’s Speed
While Google is concerned about the speed of an e-commerce site, it’s really the consumer who calls the shots. No one likes to wait for pages to load, especially if they’re in the mood to make a purchase.
Not only does a slow website make consumers nervous, it also makes them lose interest really quickly. So quickly, that a consumer having to wait even one second longer than they want to for a site to load makes them go somewhere else to find the product or service they are looking for.
Since most consumers don’t want to wait more than 2 seconds, making sure an e-commerce site loads quickly should always be one of the SEO position points.
Be Informed
While it’s tough to keep up with SEO, it’s not impossible to at least stay informed.
All that’s needed is to find a great site that has all the latest tools and news that any e-commerce site can benefit from.
Then it’s just a matter of coming back time and again to utilize all the great information and free SEO tools to help build a stronger, better e-commerce site.