SEO techniques and mechanisms for e-commerce are changing the reality of countless online stores. With some tips and strategies, there is a huge potential to increase traffic and, consequently, sales of products in e-commerce.
Additionally, digital commerce has soared in these times of crisis, gaining nearly 5.7 million consumers who choose to shop online now. Experts still claim that e-commerce grew about 45% a month during the pandemic.
The trend is that these numbers continue to rise even after the crisis ends. In other words, more than ever, this is the ideal time to invest in SEO techniques for e-commerce and boost sales results in online stores!
SEO Tips for e-Commerce
With a few small and simple adjustments, it is now possible to optimize your e-commerce so that Google understands that your products and your store offer what the customer is needing.
Keyword research and usage
The process to improve your position on Google should start with keyword research. This is the foundation of any e-commerce SEO strategy!
These are the keywords ( keywords ) that will drive all the improvements within your site. It’s impossible to optimize a product page without knowing which keywords are most searched for, for example.
Tools for e-commerce: see the main ones for all areas of your business.
What’s more, you should consider the steps in the purchase decision process. Terms such as “cell phones and smartphones” indicate that the consumer is still at the beginning of their research. On the other hand, if he searches for “buy Samsung cell phone,” he is closer to the purchase decision.
You need to enter your keywords in the following places:
- User-friendly URLs of pages, categories and products;
- Meta title (it is the title that appears to the user on the results page);
- Meta description (description of your page in the search engine);
- H1 (which is the main title of the page);
- Product summary within the online store;
- File name of product images;
- Alternative text or alt text of the images corresponding to the product.
Site architecture
The internal structure of your online store’s website is one of the points that most influences you at the time of purchase, in addition to being essential for better positioning on Google.
The construction and organization of a virtual store favor the user experience. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the categories and subcategories to have logical, simple, and pleasant navigation.
Check out some examples:
IT > notebooks > 2-in-1 notebooks;
furniture > bed > bunk bed;
fashion > male > clothing.
A good way to understand how to do this step is to look at competitors. See how other online stores organize their categories and pages to be inspired when structuring yours.
Title of pages
As mentioned a little further above, keyword insertion should be done in several places on your pages. Meta titles are one of the most important places in SEO for e-commerce, as Google needs to know what your page is about and is the first item the user sees in the results.
Don’t forget to keep your title to a maximum of 60 characters; simultaneously, you need to add some specific product details.
Meta description
The meta description ( meta description ) is the part just below the title page of Google results. This content should be text that makes the user interested in clicking on the category or product. Next, make a short call to action that encourages you to visit the store.
In this part, write the content of up to 140 characters so that Google doesn’t cut your text in the results.
Heading tags
The <h1>, <h2>, <h3> and so on are code known as heading tags. The h1 is usually a second-page title, which can be the same or different from the title that will appear on Google, but always with the keyword in question.
The h2 and h3 should be introduced as intertitles, that is, ways to highlight the content of your page through words related to the main one.
Optimized images
Many online stores forget the importance of optimizing all the images that will be placed on the site. In addition to helping with SEO for e-commerce, they can also appear on Google Images and bring more organic traffic.
To optimize this, pay attention to two points: the original file name (keyword.jpg) and the <alt text> tag, which must also contain the main term.
Internal links
The structure of internal links is a crucial factor for online stores. This is another parameter that Google uses to understand the relevance of your pages.
This structure should “talk” to each other and make logical sense for both the user and the Google robots. Furthermore, it is a way to keep the consumer browsing the site longer and increase the conversion rate.
HTTPS protocol
An e-commerce website with HTTPS security protocol is much more reliable and directly influences Google’s position. By the way, for e-commerces, the SSL certificate is practically mandatory, as it is required using payment so that transactions with credit cards and personal information of customers are secure.