Hello and welcome back to part two of our SEO guide for E-commerce businesses. By now you should have carried out the research discussed in part one and be raring to go, so let’s do it!
Step two: Identifying problems with your own site.
To stay ahead of your competitors, your site must be in good shape and free of errors. You can use tools like those from Screaming Frog to identify any problems, such as duplicate pages, missing headers, redirects, and other issues that can impact your site. You need to:
- Get rid of 404 pages.
- Change 302 redirects to 301s.
- Update duplicated pages to reflect the different content.
- Fill out all meta descriptions.
Next, consider the speed of your site as this will affect where it ends up on Google rankings. If it’s too slow, consider a new server or try a content delivery network to speed up your site.
Step three: On-page optimisation
Building up links with external sites is important, but on-page is equally as important. These are the elements that you should think about on your site to help it rank higher.
There are eight things to develop to really boost your on-page SEO.
- Keyword optimisation
- Site structure
- Usability
- Internal links
- Mobile or responsive
- Customer reviews
- Rich snippets
- Social media
- Keywords
You’ve already identified your keywords. Now you need to use them in the right places, including headers, subheaders, in the copy, in the alt-tags and image file names, in the descriptions and the URLs.
- Site structure
Getting the structure of your site right will help users to find what they are looking for. You need to keep it as simple as possible. There are a number of architecture guides around to help you with this.
- Usability
Your site has to be fun, helpful and easy to use. Cut out meaningless steps in the checkout process, make it easy for people to get in touch with you, and consider a live chat function.
- Internal linking
Keep the internal links relevant and appropriate, as this will help users to navigate and improve your rank.
- Mobile or responsive
Responsive sites are the new norm with mobile sites falling by the wayside. A responsive site looks good and is easy to use on any device, allowing shoppers to buy whenever, wherever.
- Reviews
Customers like to see reviews before they buy, so make sure that you add them when you receive them. It’s a good way to increase keyword use without keyword stuffing.
- Rich snippets
Google has begun using rich snippets, like videos or reviews, instead of meta descriptions. This allows you to connect with your customers before they even visit your site. By adding microdata to a webpage’s HTML, you can create a rich snippet on Google.
- Social media
The ubiquitous use of social media across the board is great for e-commerce businesses. It can help people to share products that they love with their friends.
That’s it for part two of our SEO guide for e-commerce – part 3 is coming soon!
Post originally appeared on Elementary Digital