The Short SEO Guide For eCommerce Startups

Many online merchants falsely believe that all they have to do to acquire search engine traffic is to simply list hundreds or thousands of products on their websites.

However, in all actuality, the process of optimized an eCommerce website for search engine optimization purposes to secure high rankings, is relatively harder than it is for a traditional blog or a squeeze page.

This is due to the fact that eCommerce sites have an abundance of product pages that are continuously shifting on and off their site as a result of product availability, such as taking down a page for a product that the merchant no longer sells for example. Therefore, you need to be more creative when it comes to formulating an eCommerce SEO strategy.

Implement A Product Reviews Section

Did you know that statistics demonstrate that 70% of online buyers search for reviews before they elect to utilize a product or service? What this entails as far as eCommerce SEO purposes go, is that if you fail to implement a product review system on your site, you are essentially missing out on the opportunity to acquire traffic from those specific search terms. Additionally, a reviews section can lead to user-generated content which keeps your product pages fresh and crawlable, which Google values for SEO.

For example, if your eCommerce store sells custom made iPhone cases, one keyword you could easily focus on by utilizing a product review system is "iPhone custom made cases reviews."

Focus On Long Tail Keywords (And Write A Detailed Product Description)

If you run a eCommerce store that sells handmade clothing, your targeted keywords for your eCommerce SEO strategy should not be short-tail phrases such as "handmade clothing." The reason being is that short tail keywords are significantly harder to rank than it is to rank for a long tail keyword such as "horror themed handmade shirts for sale" or "buy black and white handmade shirt online."

The point being is that you should focus on long tail keywords as opposed to short key phrases because you will be able to rank a page for the specific term significantly easier than the latter. This is where the implementation of a product description section comes in handy. Utilize it as a canvas to include some long tail keywords as well as to provide your visitors with some enticing information.

Don't Neglect Local Traffic

Did you know that big retail chains do local SEO as well? The concept of avoiding the possibility of adopting local SEO as a part of your entire eCommerce SEO strategy is a big mistake. In fact, people enjoy the concept of supporting locally owned businesses. Additionally, people are well aware of the fact that they will be able to receive a product that they purchased online from a locally based business, much faster than that of a mega corporation.

Create A Sitemap

A sitemap is essentially a list of all your web pages. Search engines utilize what's referred to as spiders, robots or crawlers to locate new pages on a website to index. They usually find these pages through links from other pages. If a sitemap is not identified during an initial audit of your eCommerce site, than you need to create on.

However, main pages that are only accessible by forms, connected to videos or flash content, are not seen by the programs that the search engine uses to index new pages. This is where a sitemap comes in. While they don't necessarily improve your rankings on its own, it provides a road map that robots can use to know what to rank in the first place.

Establish A Powerful Social Presence

One of the things you can do to increase the amount of traffic that your website gains is to leverage social media by establishing a strong social presence via the utilization of content marketing. Some of the benefits your store stands to gain by doing this, includes:

• Customer research - You will be able to see what your target demographic cares about the most, their interests, as well as the conversations they have about the things that they like.
• Customer Service - By establishing a social media presence, you will be able to quickly respond to your customer's inquiries.
• Customer Acquisition - Your social media profile will essentially operate as a storefront that you can use to acquire more customers.

For more information on how to build the eCommerce SEO program for your startup, visit Click Centric SEO Company for a wealth of resources and services all focal to eCommerce SEO.