Launching an ecommerce site can be a daunting task, especially when it’s completely new to you. How do you set up your site structure, are the product pages laid out as well as they can be, or are visits being tracked correctly?
And even if you’ve managed to set it all up, you then have to make sure people find it. This is where ecommerce SEO comes in. A strong ecommerce SEO strategy can make sure your online retail site can be found by those shopping for your goods.
To help you on your ecommerce journey, we’ve put together an easy-to-follow guide of where to start with your ecommerce SEO.
If you don’t have the time to read this in great detail or some of the technical terms are over your head, then cut out the middle man and get in touch with Edge45® today to get started on your ecommerce SEO journey.
What is ecommerce SEO?
Simply put, ecommerce SEO is art of driving organic traffic to your website using search engine optimisation strategies. As a specialist ecommerce seo agency, our ecommerce services page goes into more detail, but the main points are:
- Ecommerce SEO help attract new audiences by optimising your retail site for branded and non-branded search terms
- It’s a long-term strategy that builds a strong foundation for future organic traffic growth
- SEO covers various aspects of your ecommerce site from on-page content, content marketing, EEAT and technical SEO.
Why is ecommerce SEO important?
SEO should be part of any long-term online business plan. It will help you to drive people to your site who are looking to buy the products you sell. And while there is a cost associated with SEO services, it’s often more affordable than using only paid advertising.
It will mean users can Google the products you sell and find your website straight without any hassle. It also allows you to position yourself as a thought leader by targeting relevant, informational terms in your blog.
- Strong retail SEO can help increase conversions
- 49% of people currently use Google to discover new products
Which ecommerce platform is best for SEO?
If you’re starting from scratch and you don’t have a chosen platform yet, or you do have a platform but it’s not what you hoped, our recommended list of ecomm providers is a good place to start. Bear in mind, your needs as a business are your priority, so if a platform isn’t meeting those needs, it’s not for you.
Shopify
SEO Abilities:
- Shopify has some great SEO features like customisable headlines, titles, and meta tags.
- This hugely popular platform automatically generates sitemap.xml and robots.txt files.
- Shopify also offers clean, crawlable, and canonical URLs.
SEO Gaps:
- Limited URL structure customisation so it might not be ideal for all SEO strategies.
- Shopify uses its own coding language, which can limit advanced customisations without specialist knowledge.
- Reliance on third-party apps for some SEO functionalities can sometimes slow down the site.
Wix
SEO Abilities:
- Wix supports basic SEO functions such as editing title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs.
- It automatically generates and updates XML sitemaps.
- Mobile optimization is built-in – crucial for Google’s mobile-first indexing.
SEO Gaps:
- Historically slower load times compared to other platforms, though improvements have been made.
- Earlier limitations in URL customisation have been addressed, but legacy issues may still affect older sites.
- Some advanced SEO techniques are harder to implement due to the platform’s closed nature.
WooCommerce
SEO Abilities:
- Being a WordPress plugin, it benefits from WordPress’s inbuilt SEO capabilities.
- Greater control over some key SEO tools including extensive plugin options like Yoast or All in One SEO.
- High degree of customisation available for URLs, meta data, and site structure.
SEO Gaps:
- Requires more hands-on management of SEO, which might be a challenge for beginners.
- Site speed can be an issue if too many plugins are used or if the site is not optimised properly.
- Dependency on themes and plugins for optimal performance can lead to vulnerabilities if not updated.
Squarespace
SEO Abilities:
- Squarespace offers good out-of-the-box SEO settings like clean HTML markup, automatic tagging, and mobile optimisation.
- Automatic sitemap generation and easy integration with Google Search Console.
SEO Gaps:
- Less flexibility in customisation compared to other platforms.
- Little support for third-party SEO apps.
- Some users report issues with indexing and crawling efficiency.
BigCommerce
SEO Abilities:
- BigCommerce offers automatic image optimization, CDN support, and customizable URLs.
- Built-in handling of 301 redirects and URL rewrites helps maintain SEO during migrations or redesigns.
SEO Gaps:
- Some users find the blog feature less robust compared to dedicated content management systems like WordPress.
Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento)
SEO Abilities:
- Highly customizable SEO options, from URL rewrites to extensive metadata controls.
- Strong integration capabilities with third-party SEO tools and services.
- Supports complex SEO strategies for large-scale eCommerce needs.
SEO Gaps:
- Complexity of the platform can be a barrier for less technical users.
- Requires significant resource investment to fully optimize and maintain SEO standards.
- Performance can be an issue without proper optimization and robust hosting solutions.
If you’ve already got your site up and running and you can’t get to grips with, Edge45® can help you with our SEO website migrations service.
Getting the basics right
Once you’ve chosen your platform, we highly recommend getting the basics right first to save you any problems down the line. We’ve broken this out into our top 5 ecommerce SEO set-up tips:
1. Keyword research
We can’t emphasise enough the importance of keyword research. While it can be a daunting and time-consuming for a beginner, our recommendations would be to use a tool like Ahrefs or SEMRush. Find all keywords that are relevant to your products and narrow this down by being as specific as possible to keywords that are highly relevant to your business and/or product.
2. Competitor research
Alongside the keyword research, you should be conducting competitor research. How have they structured their website? Do they have better imagery? What tone of voice do they use? Just some of many ways you can take inspiration from your competitors to help give you a leg up when you’re just starting out.
3. Consider your site structure and hierarchy
How are you going to collect your products. Will they be by size, colour, type? Your keyword research can help you here. If, for example, you’re selling Bluetooth speakers, the keyword research might show that there’s high search volume for ‘waterproof Bluetooth speakers’ so you can use that as one of your categories. This means that people looking for these types of products will land on a page dedicated to them, instead of a general speaker page where they have to search through dozens of products to find what they want.
Site hierarchy also impacts SEO, as top levels pages as deemed as more important – and therefore holding more SEO value – to Google. So, you want the high volume keywords, best sellers and products with the biggest mark ups to be high up in the hierarchy.
4. Optimised URLs, page titles, headers, meta descriptions
You’ve done your keyword research, your competitor research and have your navigation planned out. Next is getting this into more of the key ranking factors Google takes into consideration when indexing your site.
URLs
Your URL structure is important for both Google and the user. Try and make it descriptive of the page without over complicating it or making it too long. A typical way of structuring your URL is website.com/category/product/. This shows Google that your product is part of that category. It also shows users where they are on the site, and how to get a level up.
Page titles
The page title is often the first thing a user sees when they come into contact with your brand in the SERPs (search engine results page). Therefore, your page title should be optimised fully using the keyword research and should describe perfectly what’s on the page. For brand awareness, we’d also suggest adding ‘| Brand Name’ to the end of all page titles so when people go searching for your product in the future, they immediately know it was you who sold them a great product in the past.
Headers
Another important SEO consideration is the header or headers you use on a page. To get your Ecommerce site done correctly the first time, we’d advise treating your H1 the same as your page title, using your keyword research and optimising it to let the user and Google know exactly what this page is about. H2s, H3s etc can also be used to target secondary keywords on the page.
Meta descriptions
Meta descriptions are the small descriptions that appear under the page title in the SERPs that expand on what the page is about and why searchers should click through to your site. While not a direct ranking factor, optimising your meta description to be as enticing as possible will help get users visiting your site rather than your competitors.
5. Set up tracking correctly
Finally, ensure your site is tracking data correctly. Most platforms will have their own built-in ready-to-go analytics – but this often only gives you a small slice of all the available data you could be utilising. We’d recommend that Google Analytics is added to your site in order to gain more insights into user behaviour and help you make smarter decisions to grow your ecommerce platform.
Taking your ecommerce SEO to the next level
What we’ve covered so far is enough to get the ball rolling on your ecommerce SEO journey. To really take advantage of the wonders of SEO we really haven’t even scratched the surface. At Edge45® we can really elevate this to the next level by conducting a technical SEO audits to understand where your site can be improved from an SEO perspective.
Some of the things we cover include:
- Site architecture
- Mobile optimisation
- Page Speed tests and optimisation
- HTTPS checks
- Core web vitals audit
- Breadcrumbs for SEO
- Schema for SEO
- XML Sitemaps
On top of this, we can offer you a variety of content audits for both on-page and off-page SEO purposes. This could look at:
- On-page content quality
- Content performance
- User journeys
- EEAT
- Gap analysis
Conclusion
Growing your ecommerce site from an SEO perspective won’t happen overnight. It’s a long-term process that we have many years’ experience in handling. We’ve helped many ecommerce platforms grow from humble optimists to real leaders in their field.
Get in touch with Edge45® today to see where SEO can take you.