Ecommerce SEO - What You Need to Know

The goal of ecommerce SEO is to improve a store's organic rankings in search engines. Approximately one-third of all ecommerce traffic comes from organic search. The first step of an ecommerce SEO campaign is to identify a number of keywords that describe the store's products. For example, if a store sells DSLR cameras, they would want to rank highly for the keyword "DSLR cameras." Reddit can be a useful resource for finding related keywords and gauging public opinion on those keywords. Product-focused keywords are not the only important factor in ecommerce SEO keyword research. The other important factor is "informational keywords". Informational keywords are keywords that people use when they are searching for helpful content. These keywords may not convert well, but they tend to bring in a lot of traffic. Sometimes the best keywords are those that your competitors already rank for. If you own a pet store, you could check out Stella & Chewy's to see what keywords they rank for. Essentially, what someone is looking to accomplish by typing in a search term is known as search intent. The Semrush Keyword Magic Tool can be used to better grasp the reasoning behind someone's chosen keyword. With this in mind, it is recommended that ecommerce sites concentrate on long-tail keywords - especially those that are new to the site. The Keyword Intent Filter makes it possible to further sort keywords by intent and then by product or blog content. For example, a search such as "buy dog food" has a clear commercial intent while something like "how much food to feed my dog" would be more suited to an article. If your page is far from your home page, it will be harder for Google to figure out what it is about. The title tag is the most important part of making sure your page comes up in a search. Keep your title tag under 60 characters, and use key words that describe what is on the page. For example, use "Best, Fastest, Lightest" to describe products, or "[Free Shipping]" to let customers know what they can expect. In order for a website to have a chance of appearing as a top result in a Google search, that website must have content that is both unique and valuable compared to other websites. Schema is a markup language designed to make your website more likely to stand out in search results. Another way to improve your website's ranking is through internal linking, which is the process of hyperlinking to other pages on your own website. This has the effect of transferring "authority" directly to the pages you want to rank high up on Google. Technical SEO is also an important factor for ecommerce websites, which often have many, many pages. For example, the website for Stella & Chewy's pet food has 1,270 pages indexed by Google. If you want to learn more about how to improve your website's ranking, visit the Semrush Site Audit tool. A successful ecommerce site is more than just a collection of product and category pages. In a recent survey, 850 SEO professionals were asked what the most effective link building strategies were. The most popular tactic was guest posting, which was recommended by over 53% of those that answered. However, Google warns against "large-scale article campaigns", stating that the main purpose of such content is to build tons of links that point to the author's site. If you have an ecommerce site, the tips in this guide will help you create an SEO action plan. Pagination for ecommerce is typically in the form of "load more" buttons or product pages at the bottom of the page. Online reviews are more important than ever before: 98% of customers feel it is essential to read online reviews before making a purchase. If an item is out of stock, it is best to keep the page live and redirect it to another product page on your site using a 301 redirect.

(source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/ecommerce-seo)