7 Proven SEO Strategies to Grow Your Ecommerce Business

SEO Strategies to Increase Traffic to Your Ecommerce Site

The competition in the e-commerce industry is insane because of the explosion of online sales.

Without leveraging practical SEO strategies that can help you outrank your competition, you will struggle to grow your e-commerce business.

Consider this:

Global e-commerce sales are estimated to be at $5.920 trillion and are projected to reach $7.6 trillion by 2026:

Global ecommerce sales 2021 - 2026
Global e-commerce sales 2021 – 2026

Image via eMarketer – Global Retail E-commerce Forecast

No doubt the ecommerce industry is growing at lightning speed. But as always, with growth comes competition.

So how do you rank your e-commerce store at the top of Google’s search engine result pages to drive more traffic and sales with the level of competition in the e-commerce industry?

Follow these proven SEO strategies

1. Create a Winning Ecommerce SEO Strategy

Estimates show that the number of global digital buyers is 2.64 billion, approximately 33.3% of the global population.

Put in other words, out of every three people, one is an online shopper. But as many people continue to shop online, many e-commerce stores are coming up every day thus the competition for customers is also high.

Having a strong e-commerce SEO strategy can help you increase organic visibility in search engines, outrank your competition, and drive more customers to your online bookkeeping store.

A solid SEO strategy for your e-commerce website can help you:

  • Drive consistent traffic
  • Establish a solid online presence
  • Increase conversions
  • Lower PPC costs

2. Conduct a Thorough Ecommerce SEO Audit

You probably have an online store built with the best e-commerce platforms out there and optimized with robust SEO tools. 

If not, create an engaging e-commerce store with one of these best e-commerce platforms by Attrock without requiring any coding knowledge.

If you already have an active online store, isn’t performing better in the SERPs?

If not, then you need to perform a thorough SEO audit of your site.

An e-commerce SEO audit involves analyzing your website’s SEO health and implementing the suggested adjustments.

When done right, it will help you improve the rankings of your product pages in SERPs, drive more traffic, and improve conversions.

Do you know why you should improve your visibility online?

Because the higher your e-commerce site ranks in the search engines, the more you’ll attract clicks from digital buyers.

Here is the proof: According to a SISTRIX survey, the click-through rate for the top result on Google is 34.2%:

Click through rate percent
Click through rate percent. Image via SISTRIX.

Here are some of the areas to examine:

  • Check if your product and category pages are optimized properly 
  • Your content quality
  • Backlinks quality
  • Page speed
  • Your site’s internal search engine

3. Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the most crucial SEO strategies for e-commerce.

Why?

By finding out the most relevant and high-traffic search phrases and terms, you can optimize your website and product pages to rank higher on SERPs.

This will help to increase traffic, and your online visibility and boost sales.

Furthermore, effective e-commerce keyword research helps you uncover search intent, and improve customer experience and your overall competitiveness in SERPs.

Here, you need to identify the specific search terms and phrases your target customers are searching for on the internet when looking for products or services similar to yours.

Specifically, you want to achieve two main goals when conducting keyword research for e-commerce:

The first aim is to identify the most relevant and popular keywords in your industry.

The second goal is to understand the buyer intent behind the keywords.

You can use a keyword research tool like Semrush to better understand the keywords your customers are using.

4. Optimize Your Product Pages

No matter the efforts you put in driving visitors to your e-commerce website, if your product pages aren’t optimized properly, converting these visitors into customers will be a tough task.

Optimizing your product pages will increase their visibility in search engines and convert browsers into buyers.

Here are useful tips to optimize your product pages for e-commerce SEO:

  • Utilize keyword-rich page titles, meta descriptions, and product descriptions
  • Ensure your product descriptions are unique, and descriptive, and highlight the benefits your products offer
  • Optimize your product images by compressing them to increase page load speed and include alt text for easier indexing and improved visibility
  • Use a logical and simple product page structure
  • Use clear calls-to-action buttons
  • Leverage stunning product photos

5. Nail Your Ecommerce Website Architecture

Your e-commerce website structure—or simply put, how your product pages are organized and arranged can make or break your effort to get visitors to purchase your products.

Why?

Because modern buyers want what they want fast. If your website is too complicated to navigate, you will lose many buyers to your competitors. It must be simple for a customer to understand who you are, what products you are selling, and what company values you represent.

Furthermore, mobile commerce is on the rise.

By 2024, 66% of digital buyers will shop via mobile:

Mobile shoppers 2020 - 2024
Mobile Shoppers 2020 – 2024

Image via Insider Intelligence – More Consumers Are Shopping Via Mobile Amid the Pandemic

What’s more?

According to Statista, over 10% of all retail sales in the US are expected to be generated via mobile commerce:

Mobile commerce sales as percentage of total retail sales in the United States from 2018 to 2025
Mobile commerce sales as a percentage of total retail sales in the United States from 2018 to 2025.

Image via Statista – Mobile commerce sales as a percentage of total retail sales in the United States from 2018 to 2025

What does this mean?

Many digital buyers are using their mobile devices to buy online hence your site’s structure should be simple enough for users and search engines to find all your pages and products easily.

Follow the two golden rules of the e-commerce site structure:

  • Keeping everything simple and scalable
  • Keeping product pages three or fewer clicks from your homepage.

A well-optimized e-commerce site architecture looks like this:

Well optimized ecommerce site structure
Well optimized e-commerce site structure

Image via E-commerce Site Architecture Backlinko

6. Spy on Your Competitors’ E-commerce Sites

Auditing your e-commerce site and spying on your competitors’ e-commerce sites are two powerful SEO strategies you shouldn’t ignore.

Understanding how your site performs compared to your competitors can help you determine how to outperform them in the search engine result pages. 

By leveraging data and analytics provided by the performance management system, you can assess key metrics such as website traffic, page load speed, user engagement, and conversion rates. This information allows you to identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to optimize your site’s performance.

Here is how to analyze your competitors’ sites:

  • Leverage an SEO tool like Semrush to uncover keywords your competitors are ranking for
  • Evaluate the quality of their content to understand the type of content they are publishing
  • Test out the user experience of your competitors’ website
  • Review their product pages and descriptions to see how to present your product better

7. Boost Ecommerce Site Speed and Decrease Page Load Times

50 of online shoppers will abandon their shopping cart if your e-commerce site takes longer to load:

Online shoppers responses to slow-loading websites
Online shoppers responses to slow-loading websites

Image via Digital – 1 in 2 visitors abandon a website that takes more than 6 seconds to load

What does this mean?

If your e-commerce website takes longer to load, then you’re missing out on huge sales opportunities.

Because slow-loading websites have a high bounce rate, poor user engagement, less traffic, and fewer sales.

Before you start adjusting your website to improve the speed, you need to determine why it’s taking longer to open the content.

Use a free speed testing tool like GTmetrix:

GTmetrix speed test results
GTmetrix speed test results

Here are handy ways to improve your e-commerce site speed:

  • Test your website mobile and desktop loading speed using a free speed test tool
  • Optimize product pages for performance 
  • Prioritize mobile site speed
  • Use a fast and response store theme
  • Implement Accelerated Mobile Pages – AMP
  • Install a caching plugin
  • Leverage a CDN

Conclusion

If your e-commerce website isn’t generating more traffic and sales, then you must find ways of optimizing it effectively for better results.

The good news is that optimizing your website doesn’t have to be daunting. Follow these SEO strategies to improve your site’s rankings, drive more traffic, and generate more sales for your business.

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