Friday 19 February 2021

Ecommerce SEO Guide

Some interesting stats:

  • 44% of people start their online shopping journey with a Google search (nChannel).
  • 37.5% of all traffic to ecommerce sites comes from search engines (SEMrush).
  • 23.6% of ecommerce orders are directly tied to organic traffic (Business Insider).

Chapter 1 : Ecommerce Keyword Research

Find Keywords For Ecommerce Product and Category Pages

Most keyword research tutorials focus on “informational keywords”.

These are keywords that people type into search engines to discover helpful “how-to” content.

(Like “How to make pour over coffee”)

While informational keywords have their place in ecommerce, the majority of your site’s keywords will be tailored around product searches.

(Like “Chemex coffee filters”)

That means that you need to tackle keyword research with product-focused keywords in mind

How to Choose Keywords for Ecommerce Product and Category Pages

  • #1 Search Volume - This is (by far) the most important metric when evaluating a search term.
  • #2 Keyword-Product Fit - In this process, double-check that the keyword you’re considering fits your site
  • #3 Commercial Intent - If a lot of people are bidding on a keyword, there’s money to be made. That’s why, when it comes to SEO for ecommerce websites, I recommend sticking with “medium” and “high” competition keywords.
  • #4 Competition - Finally, it’s time to see how hard it’ll be to crack Google’s first page.

Chapter 2 : Ecommerce Website Architecture

There are two important rules to keep in mind when it comes to setting up your ecommerce site’s structure:

Golden Rule #1: Keep things simple and scalable

Golden Rule #2: Keep every page three (or fewer) clicks from your homepage

Chapter 3 : On-Page SEO for Ecommerce Sites

Title Tag: Add Modifiers Like “Buy”, “Cheap” and “Deals” to Get More Long Tail Traffic

Here are some common terms people use when searching for products in Google:

  • Cheap
  • Deals
  • Review
  • Best
  • Online
  • Free shipping

Title Tag: Use Click Magnet Words like “X% Off” and “Lowest Price” to Boost CTR

Here are some of the best Click Magnet Words for ecommerce product and category pages:

  • X% off (“25% Off”)
  • Guarantee
  • Lowest Price
  • Free Shipping
  • Overnight Shipping
  • Sale

Description Tag: Include Phrases Like “Great Selection”, “FREE Shipping” and “All Our Items are On Sale” To Maximize Your Page’s CTR

Product and Category Page Content: Include 1000+ Words of Content and Use Your Keyword 3-5x

  • Write 1000+ Word Descriptions
  • Sprinkle Your Keywords (3-5x)
  • LSI Keywords

URLs: Use Short, Keyword-Rich URLs

Internal Links: Liberally Link to High-Priority Pages

Implement Product Review Schema to Get Rich Snippets Displayed in Google

Chapter 4 : Technical SEO for Ecommerce

  • Too Many Pages
  • Duplicate Content
  • Thin Content
  • Site Speed

Chapter 5 : Content Marketing for Ecommerce Sites

  • Find Where Your Target Customers Hang Out Online
  • Learn What Words and Phrases Customers Use
  • Create An Outstanding Piece of Content Around That Keyword

Chapter 6 : Ecommerce Link Building

  • Find Outdated, Moved or Expired Resources
  • Grab a List of Pages Pointing to the Outdated Resource
  • Send Emails, Get Links

Type of JavaScript Rendering

  • Client-side rendering : It's means that a website’s JavaScript is rendered in your browser, rather than on the website’s server
  • Server-side rendering : It's means that a website’s JavaScript is rendered on the website’s server.
  • Dynamic rendering : It's a hybrid of client-side and server-side rendering. It works like this when a search engine bot tries to access a page, the website sends over a fully-rendered page. But when a human tries to access a page, their browser has to render the page. 

Tools to be used

Absolute URLs Vs Relative URLs

What are Absolute URLs?

An absolute URL contains the entire address from the protocol (HTTPS) to the domain name (www.example.com) and includes the location within your website in your folder system (/foldernameA or /foldernameB) names within the URL. Basically, it's the full URL of the page that you link to.

An example of an absolute URL is:

<a href = http://www.example.com/xyz.html>

What are Relative URLs?

The relative URL, on the other hand, does not use the full web address and only contains the location following the domain. It assumes that the link you add is on the same site and is part of the same root domain. The relative path starts with the forward slash and leads the browser to stay within the current site.

An example of a relative URL is:

<a href = "/xyz.html">

What are navigational, informational, and transactional searches?

1. Navigational searches

Navigational searches are where someone is looking for a specific website. For example, if someone types “netflix” into Google, that’s a navigational search because they’re almost certainly looking for Netflix’s homepage.

But navigational searches aren’t always just brand names. If someone searches for “iphone 12 amazon,” that’s also arguably a navigational search. Although the searcher is looking for a specific product, they’ve already decided where they’re going to buy it from—Amazon.

2. Transactional searches

Transactional searches are where someone is looking to purchase something specific, but hasn’t yet decided where to buy it from. For example, if someone searches for “buy treadmill,” that’s a transactional search. It’s clear from their language that they’re looking to make a purchase. They’re not looking for information.

3. Informational searches

Informational searches are where someone wants to find information. For example, if someone searches for “what is a meta tag in SEO” then that’s an informational search because they’re obviously looking for a definition.

Here’s a cheat sheet of modifiers similar to what many people use: