E-commerce SEO – The Ultimate Guide in 2022

We won’t start with lecturing you about the importance of ranking high on the search engine, or how important it is to stand out from your competitors in the digital landscape- we’re pretty sure you already know all this by now. But what you might not know is that there is so much more than what meets the eye when it comes to ranking your eCommerce store on Google. We posted a blog last year about a similar topic, but we must admit, that things have changed quite a lot in the last year. Let’s get started with this in-depth guide to help you make the best out of the latest eCommerce SEO guide and tricks!

Research

Some things never change: keyword research is still inevitable
Regardless of the changing SEO trends or the introduction of new Google algorithms, you can’t ignore the very foundation of eCommerce SEO i.e keyword research.  While conducting keyword research for your eCommerce store, there are three major areas you need to consider.

1. Homepage: For the homepage, go for keywords that have high relevance to your brand. So whenever a user looks up that particular term, they come across your store’s homepage. Think of homepage keyword research as niche-oriented keyword research rather than focusing on what individual products you’re selling. An eCommerce SEO firm can help you identify the right keywords for your homepage based on what users have searched the most.

For example, if you are an eCommerce store selling beauty products, keywords such as ‘makeup products’ will be appropriate for your home page since they are not focused on any specific products.

2. Product page:  For product pages, you will want to look up specific keywords with high search volume, which are relevant to the specific products (lipstick, eyeliner, foundation, etc) that you’re selling.

3. Blog topics: The ‘blog’ section of your website can help you gain organic traffic. For some high-ranking keywords which are relevant to your industry that you’re not able to use in your website content, such as long-tail keywords, you can use in your blog page. For example, it might sound like a good idea to rank for ‘makeup’ but posting a blog with the title ‘Must have makeup products for beginners will help you get some extra traffic on your website (reference image above.)
Pro tip: Don’t try ranking on the same keywords for different pages. If you’ve targeted one keyword for your homepage, make a  separate list of keywords that you want to target for the individual product pages and your blog page.

4. Competitor research: An eCommerce SEO agency will conduct competitor research to identify the keywords and strategies that are helping them rank high. This way, we will be able to incorporate similar keywords and tactics into the customized eCommerce SEO strategies that we’ll propose for you.

The Ultimate eCommerce SEO Checklist:

Identify the keywords: Which keywords are your competitors using? if they have a higher Domain Authority than you, it will be helpful for us to identify the keywords that they’re targeting.

Find their inbound links: Where are your competitors getting their backlinks from? We will help you find that out to ensure that we have a better blog outreach and media outreach as compared to your business rivals.

Site architecture: For eCommerce stores, one of the most important things is to decide the ideal site architecture. One of our best Shopify SEO tricks is to add categories for popular products, recommended products, top-rated products, and similar other categories. We will go through some of the best eCommerce websites in your niche and figure out the best site architecture for you.

Apart from these three areas, we will also brainstorm any ideas which can help us to make your website different and better than the competition.
Pro tip: Your site structure should be in a way that the customer can get from the home page to the product page in as few clicks as possible.

e-Commerce SEO Audit:

After the keyword research and competitor analysis, it is time to identify the issues with your eCommerce store and figure out the areas for improvement. We will begin by finding any site errors such as error 404, changing redirects, and updating any duplicate meta descriptions and meta descriptions. As an eCommerce SEO firm, we will also improve the website loading speed by buying more server space with the help of different CMS (content management system).

#1. On- page optimization:

On-page optimization includes everything that can make your store rank better on Google. From keyword optimization, site structure, link building, improving product pages, optimizing for mobile, and a lot of other on-page activities under the umbrella of eCommerce SEO will help in improving your organic visibility. We’ll also help you with user-friendly websites which include relevant keywords rather than jumbled-up numbers and letters which hardly make any sense. These URLs will help you to rank high on Google because they are easier to understand.

#2. Site structure:

A well-designed website will help you get the best of both worlds. It will not only help your customers to navigate easily through your website but it will also help the search engine direct towards your eCommerce site. This will ultimately help you rank higher as a website with a simple and easy-to-understand site structure that is easier for Google to understand. This will naturally help you rank higher, making it possible to get the maximum number of organic clicks as possible.
Pro tip: Your site structure should be in a way that the customer can get from the home page to the product page in as few clicks as possible.

#3. Internal linking:

Internal linking is one of the easiest ways to create an anchor text for your page. Hypothetically speaking, a well-designed site should look somewhat like a spider’s web. We will make sure that we link the pages on your website to other pages which can help you to rank for the top-ranking keywords. However, one of the most important things is to keep in mind that all the pages that are linked should be natural. If all your pages are packed with internal linking, Google will sense something is fishy and that will just defy the entire purpose of internal linking.
Pro tip: After internal linking, it is advisable to submit a sitemap to Google so that it can crawl the entire website and index each page.

#4. User experience:

No matter how hard you try to make your eCommerce store rank, if your website isn’t user-friendly you won’t be able to get organic traffic for your website. Good user experience isn’t rocket science, your website should just be easy to use and customers should enjoy the browsing experience. From loading product images, and adding the product to the cart to the final checkout stage- the transition should be smooth.
Pro tip: Use a live chat option for your website which will help to serve the customers better and make them stay on

#5. Social media integration:

As an eCommerce store, you need to focus on interacting and engaging with your audience. A good social presence can help in spreading the word about your business and you will gain more customers. Make sure you add your social media handles on your store’s homepage and blog pages.  The more you grow your community, the better the credibility of your business.

#6. Define a testing strategy:

After you have worked on your on-page optimization, it is time to try and test the strategies that you’ve laid out. Here, we will check the success rate of the campaigns we’ve laid out. We will use analytics tools to identify the highest-ranking keywords, test meta titles to increase click-through rates and, check PPC ad campaign conversions.

#7. Creating high-quality blog posts:

Blog posts are not just a great way to educate and inform your audience, but they can also be used to optimize your website for various important keywords which could not be used on the homepage. As we discussed earlier, there will be a lot of keywords that can help your website rank high, but unfortunately, we won’t be able to use them all on the homepage because it would look unnatural. We don’t want Google to penalize us for overstuffing the keywords. This is when the blog section of your website comes to the rescue. We can create high-quality and interesting content that will help attract and retain visitors.

#8. Link building:

Low-quality referral traffic won’t do any good for your website. And where does this low-quality traffic come from? Well, this can happen when your website has low-quality backlinks. This will not only attract irrelevant traffic to your website, but you are also making your way towards a spot in the bad books of Google. But how can you identify a low-quality website? It is easy- lots of ads, poor content, and unnatural use of keywords; are some of the telltale signs of a poor website. Stay away from sites that would accept content from just anyone. So instead of working on many guest posts of average quality and pitching them to low-quality websites, work on one unique piece which is high quality, backed with solid research, add an infographic if required, and use it to earn links from high-quality websites.
Pro tip: while link building, don’t use the same anchor text or don’t link the same page repeatedly.

Are You a Local Business?

If you’re a local brick-and-mortar store with an aim to attract local customers, there are some tips to make that happen effectively! You need to make sure that you have an accurate GMB (Google my business)  presence. Ensure that you have your name, location, phone number, and operating hours updated so that customers can reach you easily. We’ll help you optimize as per location-based keywords and submit your business to all online local directories. Expanding your local reach is crucial, especially if you have a brick-and-mortar store. Check out our local SEO guide to know more about the tips and tricks that’ll help you build a strong local online presence.

Here is all we have to help you optimize your eCommerce store. The bottom line is, if you want to increase your sales and ROI significantly, then investing in SEO is a great way to get started. At Renaissance Marketing, we offer a wide array of digital marketing services which are custom to your business niche and goals. If you are new at eCommerce SEO and need help in making your store cut through the complicated Google algorithms, or are looking for some Shopify SEO tricks; get in touch with us and our team will be happy to help! We’re an eCommerce SEO agency here to help businesses outperform their competition. Call us today!