Why is it so important?
Think of the first step you take when you want to know about an interesting product you hear about: you Google it, right?
You're not alone. Googling a product before purchase is a common practice among shoppers.
This makes SEO a critical part of your website design, as it will help you get more
traffic from search engines and increase the chances that those searching for products on
Google turn up your website in their results pages.
Holding down your spot on the first page of Google results will increase your traffic
considerably, giving you a better shot at converting those visitors into email
subscribers and eventual customers.
While the specific rules of SEO evolve rapidly, the general principles remain the sameāat
least for the foreseeable future.
In this article, we take a closer look at five of the most reliable SEO strategies you
can start implementing on your website today.
Use Bespoke Product Descriptions
Product descriptions are a dime a dozen on the web. Most of us don't even read them anymore. At best, we scroll through them quickly.
That makes your product descriptions even more important to your SEO strategy.
It can be very hard to stand out in this crowded field, especially if your ecommerce website sells products that are similar or identical to those offered by other websites. There are only so many ways you can describe a plain white ceramic teapot, for example.
One way you can rise above the clutter is through writing unique product descriptions for each item on your website and not just boilerplate language copied from elsewhere.
Putting some effort into creating descriptions that convey something unique about each product not only helps you convert your website's visitors from scanners to readers, it also gives you the chance to build your company's voice.
Optimize for Mobile Browsing
Google has made it clear that they have begun to prioritize mobile-friendly websites in ranking search results.
This shouldn't be much of a surprise if you are an avid online shopper yourself. Shopping on your smartphone or tablet is much more convenient than having to boot up your laptop, so it's no wonder that mobile device browsing has surpassed desktop browsing.
We know: upgrading business websites can be a pain, but the good news is that making sure your site can handle mobile browsers doesn't require a complete overhaul of your existing website design.
In fact, most ecommerce sites are already well-equipped for this transition thanks to responsive website design.
Responsive web design is a technique that enables mobile devices to display your website in an optimized format, regardless of screen size or orientation. It's simple enough to set up on any new site you develop with help from a reputable ecommerce development company.
If you don't have the time for this step yourself, ecommerce platforms like Shopify can handle everything you need for your ecommerce website to become mobile-friendly from day one.
Incentivize Your Customers to Engage
There's something sketchy about a well-designed website with zero reviews for its products.
This is one reason why you need to make every effort to incentivize your website visitorsāespecially email subscribersāto provide feedback about their experience using your ecommerce site.
You can always offer them a coupon code good for anything on your website as an incentive. That should help get the ball rolling without requiring too much of a time investment from your subscribers.
While customer engagement is clearly a good thing, you don't want these messages to clog up your business email inbox.
Email generators are a cheap and effective way to segregate your customers' messages into different email inboxes, where they are easier to manage, while still maintaining site security.
Keep Your Customers' Navigation Experience in Mind
You can implement all the SEO strategies listed above to optimize your website's search ranking, but don't think that that's enough.
If you don't pay attention to the user experience (UX) of each page on your site for both mobile and desktop users, you may end up doing more harm than good in the long run.
We've all clicked on a high-ranking Google result only to hit the "back" key at the first sight of a poorly organized page.
This is why your company's UX design team should be involved in SEO from day one, as it can make or break your website ranking.
The perfect UX design will vary depending on your ecommerce website's specific niche, but here are some quick tips that apply to most businesses:
ā Make sure that links are easy to click while using a mobile device.
ā Eliminate the extra steps customers will need to take when navigating between pages of their shopping experience (e.g., don't require users to scroll back up after they have scrolled down).
ā Ensure that any subscribe buttons are visible on each page.
These minute details all add up to a much better user experience, which will allow you to draw in and retain more customers, while organically boosting your SEO rankings.
In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, SEO is a crucial strategy for any ecommerce website. The four SEO strategies highlighted in this blog post should help you get started with an effective and sustainable approach to search engine optimization that will adapt as Google's algorithm changes over time.