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The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce SEO: How to Optimize Commercial Websites and Drive More Traffic
If you're reading this article, you are most likely selling goods/services on the Internet or just planning to embark on your e-commerce journey.
In this guide, we will cover the fundamentals of e-commerce SEO and give you practical tips on how to promote your e-commerce website in search results.
Let's get started!
In this guide, we will cover the fundamentals of e-commerce SEO and give you practical tips on how to promote your e-commerce website in search results.
Let's get started!
Vladislav Naumov, Head of Inweb SEO Agency, helped us put together this guide.
- Technical Audit of E-Commerce Websites
- How to Conduct a Website Audit with Serpstat
- Optimizing Metadata and Headers
- Optimizing Snippets
- Setting Up Schema Markup
- Image Optimization
- Optimizing Page Load Speed
- Optimizing for Mobile Devices
- Setting Up Robots.txt
- Sitemap.xml Configuration
- Optimizing Language Versions
- Optimizing Pagination
- HTTPS Configuration
- Setting Up Redirects
What is E-Commerce SEO?
Before diving deep into SEO for E-Commerce, let's start by defining what e-commerce is.
E-commerce or electronic commerce is the segment of the digital economy and the business model that involves transactions on the Internet. Simply put, it means buying and selling online and includes online stores, banking, SaaS services, etc.
What are the types of e-commerce?
E-commerce or electronic commerce is the segment of the digital economy and the business model that involves transactions on the Internet. Simply put, it means buying and selling online and includes online stores, banking, SaaS services, etc.
What are the types of e-commerce?
- B2B or Business-to-business is a type of e-commerce in which a business buys goods or services from another business.For instance, Serpstat is a SaaS service that operates on a B2B model. We sell subscriptions to our service to other companies to promote them. Another example is an exchange between a wholesaler and a retailer. A business purchases products from a wholesaler (B2B) and sells them to customers (B2C).
- B2C or Business-to-consumer is a business model, in which the business sells a product or a service to an individual customer.For instance, it includes buying from online stores.
- С2С or Consumer-to-consumer is a type of e-commerce transaction in which the user sells a product or service to another user.For example, advertising websites and marketplaces like Craigslist, Poshmark, or Facebook Marketplace.
- C2B, or Consumer-to-business, is a model in which a consumer sells a product or service to a business.An example is Instagram influencers, who promote companies' products on their profiles.
SEO for e-commerce is a set of actions aimed at getting e-commerce websites to the top of search results, improving their technical health and usability, and, as a result, driving the target SEO traffic and increasing conversion and sales.
Is SEO important for E-Commerce websites?
There's no denying that organic traffic is vital for e-commerce.
According to Smart Insight's research on the most important retail e-commerce traffic sources, search traffic is prevalent in all e-commerce niches, which tells us that marketers are heavily relying on this channel.
According to Smart Insight's research on the most important retail e-commerce traffic sources, search traffic is prevalent in all e-commerce niches, which tells us that marketers are heavily relying on this channel.
[Source]
Moreover, websites at the top of organic search results get more clicks than websites at the top of paid search. Here are the numbers from Highervisibility's "Organic vs. Paid Search":
"Organic search drives 53% of website traffic, while paid search drives only 27%."
It's also fueled by the fact that the average CTR of websites in organic search results is higher, as users are more likely to click organic links than advertising links.
"Organic search drives 53% of website traffic, while paid search drives only 27%."
It's also fueled by the fact that the average CTR of websites in organic search results is higher, as users are more likely to click organic links than advertising links.
Distinctive Features of E-Commerce SEO
E-commerce SEO tactics differ from those for content-based websites (blog, media and news outlets, etc.).
Content-based websites are designed to drive traffic from informational queries, and make money from advertising, selling links, sponsored articles, reviews, and affiliate programs.
On the other hand, the main purpose of e-commerce websites is the interaction with the customer and further converting it into a sale. Therefore, Ecommerce websites focus on commercial traffic:
1. Driving traffic from commercial queries, such as "buy a phone", "buy dr martens", "buy an SEO service subscription", etc.
Getting to the top of search results for these keywords is often complicated by high competition, and the presence of aggregator websites and large marketplaces, as it's extremely hard (and often impossible) to outperform them.
2. Conversion of informational traffic into commercial traffic, for example, if an online store has a blog or a cloud service.
Content-based websites are designed to drive traffic from informational queries, and make money from advertising, selling links, sponsored articles, reviews, and affiliate programs.
On the other hand, the main purpose of e-commerce websites is the interaction with the customer and further converting it into a sale. Therefore, Ecommerce websites focus on commercial traffic:
1. Driving traffic from commercial queries, such as "buy a phone", "buy dr martens", "buy an SEO service subscription", etc.
Getting to the top of search results for these keywords is often complicated by high competition, and the presence of aggregator websites and large marketplaces, as it's extremely hard (and often impossible) to outperform them.
2. Conversion of informational traffic into commercial traffic, for example, if an online store has a blog or a cloud service.
How to Identify SEO Competitors
When it comes to website optimization, the first step in devising any strategy is identifying and analyzing competitors. You need to know all the ins and outs of the industry, what the competitive landscape is like and what makes the SERP leaders stand out.
There are several ways to search for competitors, and each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. In this section, we'll dissect all the options for competitor analysis in e-commerce SEO.
There are several ways to search for competitors, and each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. In this section, we'll dissect all the options for competitor analysis in e-commerce SEO.
Find Website Competitors For Free (Manually)
The simplest way to find your competitors is to analyze the search engine results.
Type the keyword of interest into the search bar and see what websites rank at the top of SERPs for it.
Type the keyword of interest into the search bar and see what websites rank at the top of SERPs for it.
Important note: Make sure to switch to the Incognito Mode in your browser. As search engines tend to heavily personalize the search results, browsing incognito will allow you to get as accurate and objective results as possible.
Repeat this step for each keyword from your list and gather all competitor websites from the top of SERPs into a table for further analysis.
However, a manual approach has significant disadvantages. It's extremely time-consuming and tedious, and the data may still be incorrect.
So let's discuss automated ways of searching for competitors, which are much more accurate and efficient.
However, a manual approach has significant disadvantages. It's extremely time-consuming and tedious, and the data may still be incorrect.
So let's discuss automated ways of searching for competitors, which are much more accurate and efficient.
Find Competitors of a New Website (Based on Keywords)
If you're just planning to launch your website, or it's brand-new and there's very little data on it, center your keyword research around individual categories of your website.
For instance, you are working on an online store that sells musical instruments.
To assess the level of competition in the search results, enter a keyword into Serpstat's search bar (let's say it's for a separate category of goods, such as "electric guitar") → go to Keyword Research → SEO research → Competitors.
For instance, you are working on an online store that sells musical instruments.
To assess the level of competition in the search results, enter a keyword into Serpstat's search bar (let's say it's for a separate category of goods, such as "electric guitar") → go to Keyword Research → SEO research → Competitors.
For further analysis, export the data in a convenient format:
After exporting, clean up the list — remove big marketplaces, aggregators, Wikipedia, etc. That way, you'll be left with only relevant competitor websites.
You can also take a look at the top of organic and paid search results for a given keyword and analyze the pages from it. Go to Keyword Research → PPC Research → Top by keyword report.
For example, at the top of SERPs for the same keyword, we can see the category pages of competitors' stores:
You can also take a look at the top of organic and paid search results for a given keyword and analyze the pages from it. Go to Keyword Research → PPC Research → Top by keyword report.
For example, at the top of SERPs for the same keyword, we can see the category pages of competitors' stores:
To save time on searching for competitors in search results, you can use the Serpstat API which is available for any pricing plan. It's a convenient way to analyze a group of keywords and find competitors for them. All you need to do is copy the keywords into a table → open the Serpstat Batch Analysis extension menu → select the method → and get the result! You can find more information about the extension here.
Find Competitors through Domain Analysis and Intersection of Keywords
If your website has been out there for several months or more, and enough data has been gathered on it, you can opt for domain analysis.
To analyze a website and find its competitors with Serpstat, just enter the domain address into the search bar and select a database. By default, you will be transferred to the Overview Report of the Domain Analysis tool.
Let's take a musical instruments store as an example. In the Overview, we can see a summarized report for the website:
To analyze a website and find its competitors with Serpstat, just enter the domain address into the search bar and select a database. By default, you will be transferred to the Overview Report of the Domain Analysis tool.
Let's take a musical instruments store as an example. In the Overview, we can see a summarized report for the website:
When you scroll down a little, you will see a list of competitors. Click "Show All" to see the full list and get detailed information:
Keep in mind, that some data may be outdated, as data refreshing takes some time.
Also, the competitors are selected from the search results based on all keywords they rank for. Most likely, not all of these keywords may be your target, therefore, some irrelevant competitors may pop up.
For more information on how to conduct a competitor analysis, you can read the following guide:
Also, the competitors are selected from the search results based on all keywords they rank for. Most likely, not all of these keywords may be your target, therefore, some irrelevant competitors may pop up.
For more information on how to conduct a competitor analysis, you can read the following guide:
Find Your Closest Competitors with the Rank Tracker
Now, let's try an unconventional approach to competitor analysis: searching for competitors with the Serpstat Rank Tracker tool.
Most likely, you only track closely the keywords that are of maximum interest to you, so the competitors you can discover here will be much more relevant to your website.
For example, let's take the same musical instrument store.
Most likely, you only track closely the keywords that are of maximum interest to you, so the competitors you can discover here will be much more relevant to your website.
For example, let's take the same musical instrument store.
So, in the Rank Tracker project, we are monitoring the website's performance in search results for the list of relevant keywords.
However, the tool tracks not only the positions of your website but of all websites in the top 100 search results that rank for the same list of keywords.
That's what it looks like:
However, the tool tracks not only the positions of your website but of all websites in the top 100 search results that rank for the same list of keywords.
That's what it looks like:
Therefore, we already know what websites are in the top 100 search results, and in that way, can get additional data about the competitive landscape in the industry for all target keywords.
In this list, we can see that there are some websites we don't plan to compete with. If you don't want to see them, you can hide them. They will be kept in the "hidden domains" section.
Thus we can get a very accurate list of competitors.
For full instructions on different ways to search and analyze your competitors, read our extensive guide.
For full instructions on different ways to search and analyze your competitors, read our extensive guide.
Would you like to conduct SEO competitor analysis via Serpstat?
Click the button below, sign up and get a free 7-day trial!
Keyword Research for E-Commerce Websites
Keyword research is the foundation of any e-commerce SEO strategy, as it's closely intertwined with all tasks you are currently doing and will be doing for your website.
You will use the keywords collected during keyword research to optimize product pages, categories, meta tags, and more. The quality of your keyword list also affects technical SEO, as your website structure and page URLs will also include those keywords.
In general, keyword research is one of the most crucial steps in any SEO strategy, so that's what we will discuss in this section.
You will use the keywords collected during keyword research to optimize product pages, categories, meta tags, and more. The quality of your keyword list also affects technical SEO, as your website structure and page URLs will also include those keywords.
In general, keyword research is one of the most crucial steps in any SEO strategy, so that's what we will discuss in this section.
Find Keywords for Website Categories and Product Cards
As we mentioned above, e-commerce websites are primarily geared toward commercial queries. The problem is that most instructions on how to collect a keyword list are focused on informational queries.
Of course, using informational queries for commercial websites is also significant, for instance, for their blog sections. But when users type in such queries, they expect to get a clear answer to their question and see "practical" content.
For instance, when searching "how to use acrylic paints" on Google, the user most likely wants to get advice, not a product ad. Therefore, most keywords of a commercial website will be oriented around the user's intent of finding products or services. For instance, "buy an electric guitar" or "Dr martens 1461 vintage."
This means you need to do keyword research with users' search intent in mind and pick product-oriented keywords.
Of course, using informational queries for commercial websites is also significant, for instance, for their blog sections. But when users type in such queries, they expect to get a clear answer to their question and see "practical" content.
For instance, when searching "how to use acrylic paints" on Google, the user most likely wants to get advice, not a product ad. Therefore, most keywords of a commercial website will be oriented around the user's intent of finding products or services. For instance, "buy an electric guitar" or "Dr martens 1461 vintage."
This means you need to do keyword research with users' search intent in mind and pick product-oriented keywords.
Collect Keywords Through Aggregator Websites
Yes, if you work on promoting your website in e-commerce, then most likely big aggregators and marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Target, etc.) will be your competitors. Because they sell EVERYTHING.
But there is a silver lining here, as they are a goldmine for collecting commercial keywords. It's a free way to gather keywords.
Now let's break it down with an example to see how to use marketplaces to find relevant keywords. Let's take a look at Target. When we enter the keyword of interest into the search bar, the website suggests tons of semantically related options.
Let's say the keyword is "pillowcases":
But there is a silver lining here, as they are a goldmine for collecting commercial keywords. It's a free way to gather keywords.
Now let's break it down with an example to see how to use marketplaces to find relevant keywords. Let's take a look at Target. When we enter the keyword of interest into the search bar, the website suggests tons of semantically related options.
Let's say the keyword is "pillowcases":
We see that the keywords Target offers are quite specific, these are so-called long-tail keywords. A big advantage of such keywords is that traffic for them tends to convert better and is less competitive.
With this approach, you can collect keywords for your website categories, product cards, and all kinds of other commercial queries.
With this approach, you can collect keywords for your website categories, product cards, and all kinds of other commercial queries.
Analyze Competitors' Category Pages
It is believed that category pages tend to perform worse in search results than product pages. They often get overlooked and many website owners use random keywords for their optimization. However, that's a big mistake.
Even when we analyze the SERPs for a random keyword, we can see plenty of category pages at the top:
Even when we analyze the SERPs for a random keyword, we can see plenty of category pages at the top:
Therefore, it definitely makes sense to dedicate some time to optimizing category pages. They can also generate sales. So where can we find them?
Head to the industry leaders' websites and take a look at the categories they're using.
In this case, you don't have to select the closest competitors, larger marketplaces will do.
Let's take look at Target's catalog.
Head to the industry leaders' websites and take a look at the categories they're using.
In this case, you don't have to select the closest competitors, larger marketplaces will do.
Let's take look at Target's catalog.
General categories will be too broad for your site, so we need to dive deeper. Let's say you sell shoes. In the "Clothing, Shoes & Accessories" category, select the "Shoes" section and take a look at the subcategories your competitor uses:
Then, go to a specific category and see what keywords the competitor uses for it:
It doesn't end here. Many competitors' keywords are hidden in the metadata, and there's a way to see them. You can use the free Serpstat Website SEO Checker extension for the analysis.
Go to any category and use the extension to see the full picture:
Go to any category and use the extension to see the full picture:
These are all excellent keywords to consider using on e-commerce category pages.
Such huge marketplaces and retailers are excellent sources for finding keywords. But you shouldn't forget about your closest competitors either. Look at how they optimize their category pages and add those keywords to your list.
Such huge marketplaces and retailers are excellent sources for finding keywords. But you shouldn't forget about your closest competitors either. Look at how they optimize their category pages and add those keywords to your list.
Use An Unconventional Source Of Keywords: Wikipedia
Yes, not many people use Wikipedia in their SEO routine, but we spotted an interesting trick from Backlinko. If you're interested in searching and collecting keywords for free, this option might be helpful.
Throughout its history, Wikipedia has been collecting keywords and grouping them into categories, so it can be a valuable source of semantics for your keyword research.
Still don't believe that you can use Wiki as an SEO tool? Let's take a look at an example. Type in a keyword that describes the product or category on your website. Let's say it's footwear.
Throughout its history, Wikipedia has been collecting keywords and grouping them into categories, so it can be a valuable source of semantics for your keyword research.
Still don't believe that you can use Wiki as an SEO tool? Let's take a look at an example. Type in a keyword that describes the product or category on your website. Let's say it's footwear.
In this section, we can see plenty of keywords for types of shoes, which we can use for filters and categories. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
You can also find great keywords for your website in the article contents.
You can also find great keywords for your website in the article contents.
So, we have discussed manual methods of collecting keywords, which, while effective, tend to be extremely tedious and time-consuming. Now, let's move on to professional tools.
Collect Keywords With Serpstat
You can collect keywords with Serpstat in several different ways.
The first option is analyzing the keywords of competitors you have already identified.
Type the competitor domain in the search bar, select the search region, and click "Search". You will see the Overview report of the Domain Analysis tool.
The first option is analyzing the keywords of competitors you have already identified.
Type the competitor domain in the search bar, select the search region, and click "Search". You will see the Overview report of the Domain Analysis tool.
Take a closer look at the keywords for which they rank at the top of organic search results (click "See All" or SEO Research → Keywords). For convenience, you can export the report:
While you're at it, it's also worth checking the Tree View report.
This report will allow you to see the structure of your competitor's website and the keywords for which competitor's pages rank in search results.
For accurate analysis, you should apply filters. Let's say you're only interested in the keywords related to "guitar" for which competitor pages rank at the top.
This report will allow you to see the structure of your competitor's website and the keywords for which competitor's pages rank in search results.
For accurate analysis, you should apply filters. Let's say you're only interested in the keywords related to "guitar" for which competitor pages rank at the top.
Now, we have the report that only contains the data we're interested in:
All that's left is to export the report and clean up irrelevant, negative, misspelled keywords, etc.
You should also repeat the same steps and analyze the keywords for which the competitor ranks on the second page of search results (positions 11- 20 ). You can try to use these keywords to outperform your competitor and get your website to the top of search results instead.
You should also repeat the same steps and analyze the keywords for which the competitor ranks on the second page of search results (positions 11- 20 ). You can try to use these keywords to outperform your competitor and get your website to the top of search results instead.
Now, let's move on to option number two of collecting relevant keywords. You need a few of your closest competitors.
Switch to the Domain vs Domain report. It will help you get a side-by-side comparison of your competitors' keyword lists.
Switch to the Domain vs Domain report. It will help you get a side-by-side comparison of your competitors' keyword lists.
The keywords that all three close competitors are using on their websites are most likely very relevant to your website. You can use them to set the foundation for your keyword list.
Expand Your Keyword List
After collecting keywords with the previous methods, you will get a fairly large set of keywords for which you want your website to rank. Now you can move on, and expand your keyword list even more.
This is where the "Keyword Research" tool comes in handy. Here you can find all kinds of synonyms and variations.
Type a keyword in the search bar and go through the following reports:
This is where the "Keyword Research" tool comes in handy. Here you can find all kinds of synonyms and variations.
Type a keyword in the search bar and go through the following reports:
- The Keyword Selection report will generate the list of keywords semantically related to the one you entered.
Also, you will be able to analyze such important indicators as:
- Volume (search volume). It shows the number of search requests per month.
- KW Difficulty. It indicates how difficult it is to get your website to the top of the organic search for the given keyword.
- PPC Competition. It will help you determine the level of competition in paid search.
3. The Search Suggestions report will provide you with options that the search engine shows under the search bar when users type in their requests.
Usually, these keywords have lower search volume and are very targeted.
Usually, these keywords have lower search volume and are very targeted.
4. Search Questions report shows all question forms of search suggestions. They'll be especially useful for your content (we'll talk about them later):
The tool will also be useful for optimizing meta tags and SERP features.
When you've collected relevant keywords for your website, its categories, and products, you need to separate them into thematic groups - clusters. That's what we're going to talk about in the next section.
Article: How to Collect the Most Complete Keyword List and Perform SEO Analytics
Article: How to Collect the Most Complete Keyword List and Perform SEO Analytics
Would you like to collect the most relevant, high-performing keywords for your website? There's Serpstat Keyword Research!
Click the button below, sign up and get a free 7-day trial!
E-Commerce Website Structure
Website structure is the way your content is organized. It is necessary to create a convenient interface and information architecture, to help users and search engines with navigation.
Keywords are an excellent source of ideas for creating the structure of the catalog and the website as a whole. With a proper keyword list, you can create such a website that will meet search engine requirements and get your website to the top of search results.
Keywords are an excellent source of ideas for creating the structure of the catalog and the website as a whole. With a proper keyword list, you can create such a website that will meet search engine requirements and get your website to the top of search results.
How to Group Keywords for Categories and Product Pages
When working with keywords, you should have a clear understanding of the keywords for which you want each page of your website to rank.
To do this, you should divide your keyword list into separate groups (clusters).
It's a complex and time-consuming process, especially if you're doing it manually.
It becomes much more efficient when you automate this task. There are a lot of tools and algorithms for clustering keywords, in the following example, we will show how the Serpstat clustering works.
To do this, you should divide your keyword list into separate groups (clusters).
It's a complex and time-consuming process, especially if you're doing it manually.
It becomes much more efficient when you automate this task. There are a lot of tools and algorithms for clustering keywords, in the following example, we will show how the Serpstat clustering works.
How Does Serpstat Clustering Work?
The majority of SEO services use keywords with the highest search volume as central terms for clusters and rely on similar pages in the search engine results. Serpstat considers this method to be inaccurate. We use a combination of algorithms based on the graph-theoretic approach of hierarchical clustering.
We build an adjacency matrix according to the number of common URLs for a group of keywords. Here's an example of such a matrix:
We build an adjacency matrix according to the number of common URLs for a group of keywords. Here's an example of such a matrix:
The list of verified pages in the search engine results during the clustering process can be seen in the "Metatop" section. The higher the analyzed URL is in the metatop, the more relevant the page is to the topic of the cluster.
The SEO platform uses special metrics to define the clusters:
You can read more about the methodology here. It may sound very complicated but don't let it scare you away. In reality, it's much simpler than it seems. Let's put it to practice.
The SEO platform uses special metrics to define the clusters:
- Homogeneity (%) shows how keywords in the cluster are related to one other. This indicator evaluates the SERPs for each keyword.
- The connection strength, on a scale of 0 to 100, reflects the similarity between the metatop and the SERPs for a particular keyword (how close the keyword from the cluster is to the main topic of the cluster).
You can read more about the methodology here. It may sound very complicated but don't let it scare you away. In reality, it's much simpler than it seems. Let's put it to practice.
How to Cluster Keywords with Serpstat
When you have a completed list of keywords, go to the Keyword Clustering tool.
Create a project and do a quick setup:
Create a project and do a quick setup:
- Title and Domain:
2. Search engine and Region (clusters will be formed based on the analysis of the top search results):
3. Clustering options (you can read more about them in the tutorial):
4. Add keywords and press "start":
As a result you will get ready clusters for individual pages.
Done! All that's left is to clean up the clusters. Next, you need to create and optimize landing pages for each query group.
Article: How to Create a Website Structure Based on Keywords
Article: How to Create a Website Structure Based on Keywords
On-Page SEO for E-Сommerce Websites
Internal SEO or On-page SEO is a set of techniques for optimizing website pages to improve their rankings in search engine results. On-page optimization includes work on improving the HTML code and visible page content.
Technical Audit of E-Commerce Websites
Just creating a website is not enough. Nor is it enough to just read a couple of articles on SEO theory and expect the website to immediately conquer the search results, become mega-popular, and generate massive revenue. You have to put tremendous effort into website optimization.
You need to look at things realistically — there are hundreds of thousands of websites on the Internet that are similar to yours. Many of them have teams of professional optimizers behind them, and there's no way for you to keep up with them if you don't have a clear plan of action. This is what a website audit is for.
SEO Website Audit allows you to determine your website's effectiveness by measuring its performance in search results. During SEO Analysis you can not only assess the website's current level of optimization but also find its vulnerabilities and ways to increase traffic from organic search results.
Unlike competitor analysis or keyword research, you can't manually check your website for technical issues. Problems and vulnerabilities may be hidden in the code, where only a specialized tool will detect them.
You need to look at things realistically — there are hundreds of thousands of websites on the Internet that are similar to yours. Many of them have teams of professional optimizers behind them, and there's no way for you to keep up with them if you don't have a clear plan of action. This is what a website audit is for.
SEO Website Audit allows you to determine your website's effectiveness by measuring its performance in search results. During SEO Analysis you can not only assess the website's current level of optimization but also find its vulnerabilities and ways to increase traffic from organic search results.
Unlike competitor analysis or keyword research, you can't manually check your website for technical issues. Problems and vulnerabilities may be hidden in the code, where only a specialized tool will detect them.
How to Conduct a Website Audit with Serpstat
It's quite easy! All you need to do is create a project, set it up, and click "Start". For detailed instructions, head over to this article: Effective Site Audit With Serpstat: Tool Overview.
When our robot finishes scanning your website pages, the service will provide you with a report with all detected issues, divided by priority: high, medium, low, and informational.
When our robot finishes scanning your website pages, the service will provide you with a report with all detected issues, divided by priority: high, medium, low, and informational.
Each line of the report is clickable and will transfer you to a detailed report, where you will find all the URLs with a given issue, a short explanation, and recommendations for fixing it.
It is vital to fix all the errors, especially those with a high priority. The toll will also track the changes you've made since the last audit, so you can track your progress.
Besides, if you can't or don't need to conduct an audit for the whole website, you can analyze the pages one by one with the Page Audit tool.
Article: What types of technical issues can Serpstat detect?
Besides, if you can't or don't need to conduct an audit for the whole website, you can analyze the pages one by one with the Page Audit tool.
Article: What types of technical issues can Serpstat detect?
Optimizing Metadata and Headers
The first step in your website optimization should be Titles, Headers, and Descriptions, as that's exactly what shows up on search engines.
Let's go over the main points.
Let's go over the main points.
For Title, the most fundamental requirements are as follows:
How can you find Tittle errors on your website?
You don't have to manually check each website page. Serpstat Site Audit will help you detect the following issues:
All Title-related issues can be found in the Meta Tags section:
- It must be relevant to the page content;
- It should include relevant keywords;
- It must be unique, informative, and readable;
- Title length should be within the 30-70 characters range.
How can you find Tittle errors on your website?
You don't have to manually check each website page. Serpstat Site Audit will help you detect the following issues:
- Missing Title;
- Duplicate Titles;
- The Title is too short or too long;
- H1 duplicates Title.
All Title-related issues can be found in the Meta Tags section:
Description is the meta tag that contains key information about the page content. Filling the Description tag is not necessarily a strict requirement but if you don't write it yourself, the search engine will most likely generate its own description, which might not look the way you want it to.
Description requirements:
Just like with the Titles, you can find all Description-related issues of your website in the Meta Tags section of Site Audit:
Description requirements:
- It must be relevant to the page content;
- It should include relevant keywords;
- It must be unique;
- The length should be up to 300 characters.
Just like with the Titles, you can find all Description-related issues of your website in the Meta Tags section of Site Audit:
To avoid issues with Headers, you should adhere to certain rules.
H1 requirements:
H1 requirements:
- The <H1> title shouldn't duplicate the Title;
- The <H1> and Title tags should be similar;
- Avoid keyword stuffing;
- Use only one <H1> tag per page;
- It shouldn't be too long (approximately up to 50 characters).
H2-H6 requirements:
- Stick to the heading hierarchy;
- Don't use links in the headings;
- Make them readable and informative;
- Remove unnecessary characters and tags;
- Don't use too many headings on one page.
Optimizing Snippets
Snippets are automatically formed by the search engine and their general structure is the same for all search engines. It always includes such elements as:
- URL
- Title. It's typically based on the Title tag of the page. If the tag is missing or poorly worded, the search engine will generate it according to the page content.
- Description. It's usually based on the Description tag. The search engine can also generate it itself by taking phrases from the text that are relevant to the user's search query.
To make your website snippet look the way you want to, you should always stick to Google's guidelines. Otherwise, it will be completely up to the search engine.
To make your snippets stand out in search results, simply filling in the meta tags is not enough, you should also use other methods. And that's where we get to the next point: markup.
To make your snippets stand out in search results, simply filling in the meta tags is not enough, you should also use other methods. And that's where we get to the next point: markup.
Setting Up Schema Markup
Schema markup helps search engines process website content faster and interpret it correctly. Implementing schema markup involves using the tags and attributes aimed at structuring the information.
Schema markup allows you to highlight company contacts, reviews, ratings, breadcrumbs, and more on the page. It also helps a website stand out in search results, making it more attractive for users and increasing click-through rates.
Schema markup allows you to highlight company contacts, reviews, ratings, breadcrumbs, and more on the page. It also helps a website stand out in search results, making it more attractive for users and increasing click-through rates.
What can you highlight with schema markup?
- contact details;
- events;
- books;
- courses;
- recipes;
- job openings;
- breadcrumbs;
- local business;
- logos, and many more.
What are the ways to implement schema markup?
- JSON-LD is a data structuring method, implemented via javascript in a JSON text format. Using this method is preferable because it allows users to easily read, create and edit marked-up documents. You can read more about it on Google Search Central.
- Schema.org has a large number of schemas for structured data that are well-received by search engines.
Image Optimization
In Google Images best practices you can find all the recommendations about image optimization. Now, let's go over some key points:
- Use high-quality, unique, and relevant images;
- Create a good URL structure for your images;
- Describe your images with Alt text but don't indulge in keyword stuffing;
- Use informative and relevant titles, captions, and filenames for images;
- Help search engines discover your images by using semantic markup, image sitemap, etc.;
- Use supported image formats and optimize their size.
Optimizing Page Load Speed
Page Load Speed is one of the key ranking factors for Google, you can check your website for it with PageSpeed Insights. A lot of recent Google Algorithm Updates focus on ranking fast-loading websites higher in search results.
However, a fast-loading site doesn't always mean it's high-quality, and vice versa. That's why Google has introduced Core Web Vitals. What are they?
Core Web Vitals is an algorithm that evaluates users' experience of interacting with a webpage. They measure how long it takes for the content to load, how quickly users can interact with the page, etc. The core of this algorithm includes three main indicators:
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is a metric that measures the time it takes for a website to load its main content elements and make them ready for users to interact with. It only tracks the load time that's relevant to the user experience:
FID (First Input Delay) is a metric that measures how long it takes for the browser to start processing a user's first interaction with a webpage.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — is a website "instability" metric that determines whether the website loads the way the user expects it to.
Let's say the user has started reading the text and then a banner suddenly popped up, making the text move or disappear. This indicates that the page is unstable.
Such factors have a significant impact on user experience and behavior. The more loading instability, the more likely the user is to leave the website.
All these metrics are vital for e-commerce websites since product cards, pagination pages, etc. include a lot of media files. Taking care of your Core Web Vitals is necessary for improving your rankings in search results, and for retaining your website visitors. If the users have a poor experience on your website — they will not hesitate to look for the same products or services someplace else.
Articles:
Core Web Vitals is an algorithm that evaluates users' experience of interacting with a webpage. They measure how long it takes for the content to load, how quickly users can interact with the page, etc. The core of this algorithm includes three main indicators:
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is a metric that measures the time it takes for a website to load its main content elements and make them ready for users to interact with. It only tracks the load time that's relevant to the user experience:
- Images and tags;
- Video preview;
- Background images with CSS;
- Text elements: paragraphs, headings, and lists.
FID (First Input Delay) is a metric that measures how long it takes for the browser to start processing a user's first interaction with a webpage.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — is a website "instability" metric that determines whether the website loads the way the user expects it to.
Let's say the user has started reading the text and then a banner suddenly popped up, making the text move or disappear. This indicates that the page is unstable.
Such factors have a significant impact on user experience and behavior. The more loading instability, the more likely the user is to leave the website.
All these metrics are vital for e-commerce websites since product cards, pagination pages, etc. include a lot of media files. Taking care of your Core Web Vitals is necessary for improving your rankings in search results, and for retaining your website visitors. If the users have a poor experience on your website — they will not hesitate to look for the same products or services someplace else.
Articles:
Optimizing for Mobile Devices
Mobile is the future, so don't forget to adapt your site for all devices.
Mobile-first index means that Google will index all new websites for mobile devices first. This means that Google's bots will consider mobile sites and rank them earlier than the desktop version. Mobile-first design will help you rank higher on Google.
Read more:
When it comes to setting up AMP on e-commerce websites, opinions differ. Most experts tend to believe that this technology is more suitable for media outlets and blogs, and e-commerce websites should avoid it.
If you're not familiar with AMP yet, it stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It's a Google service that allows you to create a mobile website version that will work faster than a conventional adaptive mobile website. This is achieved by using Google's custom JavaScript library of AMP codes and elements on the page.
However, is this solution perfect? Not really. AMP limits a lot of features that are vital for e-commerce:
For instance, would you prefer to increase the load speed by 1 second or keep the one-click purchase option on your website?
All in all, we believe that for commercial websites, it's better to use other methods of mobile optimization.
Mobile-first index means that Google will index all new websites for mobile devices first. This means that Google's bots will consider mobile sites and rank them earlier than the desktop version. Mobile-first design will help you rank higher on Google.
Read more:
- How to Optimize your Website for Mobile Devices
- How To Optimize Images On A Website For Mobile Devices
- How to Find and Fix Sneaky Redirects for Mobile Devices
- How To Make Your WordPress Site Ready For The Mobile Speed Competition
When it comes to setting up AMP on e-commerce websites, opinions differ. Most experts tend to believe that this technology is more suitable for media outlets and blogs, and e-commerce websites should avoid it.
If you're not familiar with AMP yet, it stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It's a Google service that allows you to create a mobile website version that will work faster than a conventional adaptive mobile website. This is achieved by using Google's custom JavaScript library of AMP codes and elements on the page.
However, is this solution perfect? Not really. AMP limits a lot of features that are vital for e-commerce:
- Signing in;
- Chat apps;
- Payment methods;
- Filters;
- Analytics are limited;
- No integrations are possible.
For instance, would you prefer to increase the load speed by 1 second or keep the one-click purchase option on your website?
All in all, we believe that for commercial websites, it's better to use other methods of mobile optimization.
Set Up Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a service file that contains instructions for certain (or all) search engine bots on how to index your site. Here's how Google itself puts it:
“
A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on your site. This is used mainly to avoid overloading your site with requests [...] and to manage crawler traffic to your site.
Keep in mind that robots.txt is not meant for keeping your content out of search results. To block the search engine from indexing certain website pages, Google recommends using the noindex tag or protecting the page with a password.
Without robots.txt, your e-commerce website is completely crawlable by a search engine bot. It may sound good, but it's actually not.
Every website has a crawling budget, which is the limit of website pages a bot can crawl in one session.
When robots are not instructed or instructed incorrectly, the crawler will go through the entire website and end up scanning technical pages, irrelevant and outdated content, etc. It may crawl links to shopping carts, wishlists, and other pages that should not be included in the index.
As a result, the crawling budget will be wasted, and the robot may not even get to important and valuable pages.
There's also another thing that can go wrong here. Through robots.txt you may inadvertently block content that should be crawled and indexed. If you notice that some of your key pages are not getting indexed, checking the robots.txt file may help you get to the root of the problem.
Every website has a crawling budget, which is the limit of website pages a bot can crawl in one session.
When robots are not instructed or instructed incorrectly, the crawler will go through the entire website and end up scanning technical pages, irrelevant and outdated content, etc. It may crawl links to shopping carts, wishlists, and other pages that should not be included in the index.
As a result, the crawling budget will be wasted, and the robot may not even get to important and valuable pages.
There's also another thing that can go wrong here. Through robots.txt you may inadvertently block content that should be crawled and indexed. If you notice that some of your key pages are not getting indexed, checking the robots.txt file may help you get to the root of the problem.
Always check and update your robots.txt file
So how should you configure robots.txt for an e-commerce website?
You should instruct the search bot to ignore low-value pages and save the crawling budget for higher-value pages (i.e., pages that generate revenue and sales).
For e-commerce sites, low-value pages for SEO include pages and folders, specifically meant for customers, such as:
For detailed instructions on robots.txt configuration, head over to this article «How to set up robots.txt?».
You should instruct the search bot to ignore low-value pages and save the crawling budget for higher-value pages (i.e., pages that generate revenue and sales).
For e-commerce sites, low-value pages for SEO include pages and folders, specifically meant for customers, such as:
- /cart.php
- /checkout.php
- /finishorder.php
- /*login.php
- Disallow: /*sort=newest
- Disallow: /*sort=bestselling
- Disallow: /*?page=
For detailed instructions on robots.txt configuration, head over to this article «How to set up robots.txt?».
Sitemap.xml Configuration
An e-commerce website usually consists of a multitude of sections and pages. Most of them are aimed at serving customers, but some of them are solely designed for search engines. A sitemap is an example of the latter.
A sitemap is a website guide for search engine crawlers and sometimes for users.
For users, it's recommended to make a Sitemap in HTML but it's hard to find a person who would actually use it. Even though search engines recommend having both versions of the sitemap for good indexing, an HTML sitemap is definitely not the first priority. It's much more crucial to create a convenient menu for website navigation.
According to Google Search Central:
A sitemap is a website guide for search engine crawlers and sometimes for users.
For users, it's recommended to make a Sitemap in HTML but it's hard to find a person who would actually use it. Even though search engines recommend having both versions of the sitemap for good indexing, an HTML sitemap is definitely not the first priority. It's much more crucial to create a convenient menu for website navigation.
According to Google Search Central:
“
A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to crawl your site more efficiently.
If you don't provide a sitemap, search robots would have to do all the following on their own:
Since the search engine has a whole lot of crawling to do (to say the least), without clear instructions, it might just quickly breeze through your website, which will not make a significant difference in its performance in search results. Why waste the precious crawling budget like that?
That's why creating a quality sitemap is really important.
These are the basics everyone should keep in mind. To learn everything you need to know about sitemaps, you can read our dedicated article:
- Search for new pages on the website;
- Check for any recent changes to the site;
- Set priorities for page indexing.
Since the search engine has a whole lot of crawling to do (to say the least), without clear instructions, it might just quickly breeze through your website, which will not make a significant difference in its performance in search results. Why waste the precious crawling budget like that?
That's why creating a quality sitemap is really important.
These are the basics everyone should keep in mind. To learn everything you need to know about sitemaps, you can read our dedicated article:
Optimizing Language Versions
You may have noticed that many popular e-commerce sites are multilingual. That stands to reason: the more languages are available on your website, the more potential customers are able to access your products or services.
In addition to increased sales, multilingual e-commerce websites have an advantage in terms of SEO. Ranking for keywords with more traffic in other languages can be much easier, which in turn leads to even more website visitors.
However, translating the website is not all it takes. You must also inform a search engine that your website is available in different languages.
That's where the hreflang attribute comes into play. To learn more about managing multilingual websites, read Google's recommendations.
In addition to increased sales, multilingual e-commerce websites have an advantage in terms of SEO. Ranking for keywords with more traffic in other languages can be much easier, which in turn leads to even more website visitors.
However, translating the website is not all it takes. You must also inform a search engine that your website is available in different languages.
That's where the hreflang attribute comes into play. To learn more about managing multilingual websites, read Google's recommendations.
Optimizing Pagination
Pagination is sequential page numbering used for separating the content of a large catalog into multiple pages. It's an important step in website optimization.
However, if implemented incorrectly, it can cause a lot of SEO-related issues, especially for bigger websites with a large number of products. It often tends to have a very negative impact on a website's rankings in search results. There are the following risks:
You can implement pagination in several ways:
However, if implemented incorrectly, it can cause a lot of SEO-related issues, especially for bigger websites with a large number of products. It often tends to have a very negative impact on a website's rankings in search results. There are the following risks:
- Duplicate content issues, which can lead to search engine penalties;
- In most cases, incorrectly marked pagination pages will not be crawled further than the first or second page. As a result, they will not be included in the index.
You can implement pagination in several ways:
- Pagination: page breakdown into a series of numbered pages. It allows users to switch to the "next" or "previous" page and select a certain page number.
2. "View More"/"Load More" button or similar:
3. Infinite scroll. Scrolling to the end of the page triggers the loading of more content.
Combining both options is also possible.
Combining both options is also possible.
All of these options have a number of advantages and disadvantages. Here's some information about them from Google Search Central:
The choice of pagination type is totally up to you. However, make sure to not block pagination pages from indexing in any way (robots.txt, noindex, nofollow, etc.).
HTTPS Configuration
Since e-commerce websites work with users' personal data, keeping it secure should be the first priority. This is where HTTPS is helpful.
HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is a secure version of HTTP, a system used to transfer information between a web browser and a website.
Why does your website need HTTPS?
1. It's important for improving the website's visibility on Google
Back in 2018, Google announced that the impact of HTTPS on SEO had become more significant. This means that if two websites have the same quality of content, the site with HTTPS will get a ranking advantage.
2. It increases the credibility of the site
Google Chrome browser flags websites without HTTPS as "not secure" to discourage users from visiting them. If a user finds your website insecure and goes to your competitor's instead, that's a loss of a potential conversion and sale. Therefore, using a security protocol is a must.
3. It guarantees safety
HTTPS provides secure browsing by encrypting data, making it much more difficult to steal information. With online transactions, data is transferred between multiple computers, and if a site does not use HTTPS, any fraudster can steal it. This means that with HTTPS, valuable data such as login IDs, home addresses, credit card information, etc. are kept more secure. It also protects online retailers and their customers from fraud by ensuring that every transaction is done securely.
Read more:
HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is a secure version of HTTP, a system used to transfer information between a web browser and a website.
Why does your website need HTTPS?
1. It's important for improving the website's visibility on Google
Back in 2018, Google announced that the impact of HTTPS on SEO had become more significant. This means that if two websites have the same quality of content, the site with HTTPS will get a ranking advantage.
2. It increases the credibility of the site
Google Chrome browser flags websites without HTTPS as "not secure" to discourage users from visiting them. If a user finds your website insecure and goes to your competitor's instead, that's a loss of a potential conversion and sale. Therefore, using a security protocol is a must.
3. It guarantees safety
HTTPS provides secure browsing by encrypting data, making it much more difficult to steal information. With online transactions, data is transferred between multiple computers, and if a site does not use HTTPS, any fraudster can steal it. This means that with HTTPS, valuable data such as login IDs, home addresses, credit card information, etc. are kept more secure. It also protects online retailers and their customers from fraud by ensuring that every transaction is done securely.
Read more:
Setting Up Redirects
Redirects are a way to send users from the page they requested to a different page.
Duplicate content, 404 errors, and HTTP and HTTPS versions of the URL can have a detrimental impact on website rankings, and redirects are meant for dealing with them.
There are many types of redirects, three of which are the most common in SEO:
When are redirects useful?
Duplicate content, 404 errors, and HTTP and HTTPS versions of the URL can have a detrimental impact on website rankings, and redirects are meant for dealing with them.
There are many types of redirects, three of which are the most common in SEO:
- 301 Moved Permanently indicates that the document has been moved to the new URL permanently.
- 302 Moved Temporarily indicates that the document has been moved temporarily.
- 307 Temporary Redirect means the requested document is available at another URL for a short time.
When are redirects useful?
- When a product has been removed and you want to direct traffic to a similar product instead.
- When you've removed a specialized landing page (for a sale, contest, etc.) and want to direct traffic to the homepage.
- When you have merged several product pages into one (e.g. with options) and have several outdated URLs.
- When you have completely changed the URL structure of your store (let's say, you switched from the HTTP to HTTPS version — search engine sees it as two completely different addresses), and more.
Link Building for E-Commerce Websites
Backlinks are one of the most crucial factors for improving any website's performance in organic search results. And e-commerce is certainly no exception here.
There's a golden rule for link building: do it well or don't do it at all, as poor quality backlinks will definitely do more harm than good. They may even lead your website to search engine penalties. Moreover, it's crucial to also work on the technical health of your website and high-quality content, as backlinks will not do much without those factors.
In this chapter we'll talk about effective link building strategies for e-commerce:
There's a golden rule for link building: do it well or don't do it at all, as poor quality backlinks will definitely do more harm than good. They may even lead your website to search engine penalties. Moreover, it's crucial to also work on the technical health of your website and high-quality content, as backlinks will not do much without those factors.
In this chapter we'll talk about effective link building strategies for e-commerce:
- Replication of competitor backlinks
- Guest posting
- Skyscraper technique and linkbait content
- Broken link building
- Turning unlinked brand mentions into links
- Business Listings and Ratings
- Crowdsourced links
- Social media links
Replication of Competitor Backlinks
It's one of the most popular strategies for getting backlinks. This approach is definitely effective but if you're a beginner, be careful with it. Not all of your competitors' backlinks are good. Some of them may be low-quality, spammy, or even a product of black-hat SEO, which can get your website a search engine penalty.
So, how do you find out who links to your competitors? You definitely need a specialized tool for it. Select any backlink checker of your liking, and the process will become quite simple.
In the previous section ("Identifying SEO competitors") we've already learned how to determine our competitors in organic search results. Now, we can take that list of competitors and check their backlink donors with Serpstat. In Serpstat, go to Backlink Analysis → Referring Domains and get the list of all websites that link to your competitor:
So, how do you find out who links to your competitors? You definitely need a specialized tool for it. Select any backlink checker of your liking, and the process will become quite simple.
In the previous section ("Identifying SEO competitors") we've already learned how to determine our competitors in organic search results. Now, we can take that list of competitors and check their backlink donors with Serpstat. In Serpstat, go to Backlink Analysis → Referring Domains and get the list of all websites that link to your competitor:
Next, we can take a closer look at competitors' backlinks: see the list of backlink donors and their Domain Rank, link types (e.g. dofollow/nofollow), link dynamics (new and lost backlinks), etc. To do that, head over to the Backlinks report.
Here you can find relevant websites to then negotiate link placement with them.
Here you can find relevant websites to then negotiate link placement with them.
For instance, in this report, you can identify that your competitor does a lot of successful guest posting, and reach out to the same websites to get backlinks from them. More on this link building technique later.
There is another way to find backlink donor websites. It's even more reliable than the previous one because it's based not on one competitor's backlink profile, but on several at once.
First, switch to the Links intersect report. Type in a few competitor domains and see what backlink donors are common among them. The next step is to negotiate your link building options with the owners of these websites.
There is another way to find backlink donor websites. It's even more reliable than the previous one because it's based not on one competitor's backlink profile, but on several at once.
First, switch to the Links intersect report. Type in a few competitor domains and see what backlink donors are common among them. The next step is to negotiate your link building options with the owners of these websites.
Make sure to thoroughly check the quality of each potential backlink donor. To do that, go through each point of the list of requirements for a perfect donor site.
Here are the main criteria for determining a decent backlink donor:
Here are the main criteria for determining a decent backlink donor:
- Relevancy to the topic of your project;
- Website trust level;
- The quality of content;
- Basic requirements:
- Lack of search engine penalties and filters;
- Domain age;
- The quality of SEO optimization;
- Social media activity;
- Advertising;
- Backlink profile;
- Participation in link schemes.
Would you like to analyze your and competitors' backlink profiles via the Serpstat Backlink Analysis Tool?
Click the button below, sign up and get a free 7-day trial!
Guest Posting
This strategy overlaps with the previous one, as you can take the same steps for finding quality websites for guest posting.
The algorithm is simple: find a relevant website in your industry → offer to write an article→ and get a backlink to your site in the article.
Moreover, you can optimize the article for SEO and not only get a backlink to your website but also get more impressions of the article in organic search, and in turn, get more traffic to your website via that link.
The algorithm is simple: find a relevant website in your industry → offer to write an article→ and get a backlink to your site in the article.
Moreover, you can optimize the article for SEO and not only get a backlink to your website but also get more impressions of the article in organic search, and in turn, get more traffic to your website via that link.
Creating Linkbait Content
This approach is pretty simple yet complicated, just like everything that has to do with links. Of course, you can create content on a relevant and trendy topic and try to distribute it as much as possible to get more links. But it doesn't always work out that way.
Sometimes it's more efficient to follow the beaten path of your competitors. Find a popular article in your industry. See who is linking to it, and gather those websites into a list.
Next, create the same type of content, but better: make it more up-to-date and comprehensive. Then, reach out to those websites and offer them a better version of the content. Could it work? Absolutely!
For instance, you're promoting your product in the SaaS industry. Look at your competitor's blog and analyze the content that gets their website the most links.
Go to Backlink Analysis → Top Pages. Apply a filter to only see the results from the competitor's blog.
Sometimes it's more efficient to follow the beaten path of your competitors. Find a popular article in your industry. See who is linking to it, and gather those websites into a list.
Next, create the same type of content, but better: make it more up-to-date and comprehensive. Then, reach out to those websites and offer them a better version of the content. Could it work? Absolutely!
For instance, you're promoting your product in the SaaS industry. Look at your competitor's blog and analyze the content that gets their website the most links.
Go to Backlink Analysis → Top Pages. Apply a filter to only see the results from the competitor's blog.
Now that you have the list of top-performing competitor articles, you can click any number in the report and get the list of all websites that link to them.
Broken Link Building
It's a link building strategy that stood the test of time. It means detecting broken links on other websites, notifying their owners/admins about them, and offering them to replace those broken links with links to your website.
By the way, Serpstat can help here too. In the Backlinks report, switch from Active backlinks to Lost Backlinks. Now, you have a list of inactive anchors to the given website.
By the way, Serpstat can help here too. In the Backlinks report, switch from Active backlinks to Lost Backlinks. Now, you have a list of inactive anchors to the given website.
Turning Unlinked Brand Mentions into Links
It's a common occurrence when the website/brand gets mentioned on the web, but there's no link attached to it. It can and should be fixed!
To track such mentions, set up the monitoring of brand mentions online. You can do this with specialized paid tools, or with free Google Alerts. Every time your domain or brand name appears online you will receive an alert. Then, you can contact the website administrator and ask them to put a link to your website.
To track such mentions, set up the monitoring of brand mentions online. You can do this with specialized paid tools, or with free Google Alerts. Every time your domain or brand name appears online you will receive an alert. Then, you can contact the website administrator and ask them to put a link to your website.
Business Listings and Ratings
First, you should register for business listings, as it's a must for e-commerce. It will allow you to leave links to your website in business directories and get additional traffic.
Make sure to regularly update the information and keep an eye out for reviews. Such listings include Google Business, Facebook Business, LinkedIn Pages, and online maps (Google, Apple, 2GIS, etc.).
Also, try your best to get into business lists and rankings, relevant to your industry.
Even though it's not always easy, it's totally worth the effort.
Are you developing software for SEO specialists? Then, getting to the "Best SEO Tools" rating should be your goal.
Do you have a Ukrainian SaaS product? Try to get into a selection of such services, a rating, or a catalog.
I'm sure you got my point. Now, let's move on to the next strategy.
Make sure to regularly update the information and keep an eye out for reviews. Such listings include Google Business, Facebook Business, LinkedIn Pages, and online maps (Google, Apple, 2GIS, etc.).
Also, try your best to get into business lists and rankings, relevant to your industry.
Even though it's not always easy, it's totally worth the effort.
Are you developing software for SEO specialists? Then, getting to the "Best SEO Tools" rating should be your goal.
Do you have a Ukrainian SaaS product? Try to get into a selection of such services, a rating, or a catalog.
I'm sure you got my point. Now, let's move on to the next strategy.
Crowd Marketing
Building links through crowd marketing can be an effective strategy if you accept that it's a long game. The essence of crowd marketing is the communication with the target audience through relevant forums, blogs, comment sections, review websites, and so on.
Each business can find the most relevant, industry-specific platforms, and they will always differ. It may be Reddit, Quora, StackOverflow, all the way to Facebook, where everyone can meet their target audience.
Read more:
Each business can find the most relevant, industry-specific platforms, and they will always differ. It may be Reddit, Quora, StackOverflow, all the way to Facebook, where everyone can meet their target audience.
Read more:
Social Media Links
Even though social media links are not an official ranking signal, they can still have a positive impact on your website performance — increase brand awareness and get you plenty of links and traffic.
Create accounts on popular social platforms and share your content there. You should definitely have business pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
A personal social media profile can also be helpful for promoting the brand and engaging the audience.
Read more about social media in the following articles:
Create accounts on popular social platforms and share your content there. You should definitely have business pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
A personal social media profile can also be helpful for promoting the brand and engaging the audience.
Read more about social media in the following articles:
- Use These 10 Social Media Tips to Skyrocket Your SEO Now
- Building Your Personal Brand On Social Media: Tips And Tricks
- 19 Pinterest SEO Tips For Your Blog
- How to use Pinterest for your B2B Marketing Strategy
- Youtube SEO: 8 Ways To Rank On The First Page On Youtube
- 9 Ways To Improve Your Chances Of Getting Viral Marketing Campaigns
Content Marketing for E-Commerce
As we know, Content is King, so let's dive into details in this section. Let's say you've already heavily invested in your content marketing but something doesn't feel quite right:
- Your website has a high bounce rate — users (almost) immediately click away;
- Articles don't get shared online;
- Your brand doesn't get mentioned anywhere;
- Content marketing makes the money slip through your fingers and doesn't give much in return;
- You don't know why you need content;
- You have no idea who you're writing for;
- You are not different from your competitors;
- You don't write about the product;
- You don't distribute your content;
- You only send out ads;
- You don't track analytics.
Writing Texts for Landing Pages
A landing page is meant to attract the attention of the target audience to a particular product or service and to get their contact information. Its main purpose is to convert a visitor into a customer.
Creating good landing pages, like many other things in SEO, is impossible without analyzing your competitors. Find their landing pages, see how they design them, and do better.
You can do it manually, or speed up the process with Serpstat. Go to Domain Analysis → PPC Research → Landing Pages, and type in the competitor's domain into the search bar. Here you'll see all of your competitors' landing pages, see what products they advertise and how exactly:
Creating good landing pages, like many other things in SEO, is impossible without analyzing your competitors. Find their landing pages, see how they design them, and do better.
You can do it manually, or speed up the process with Serpstat. Go to Domain Analysis → PPC Research → Landing Pages, and type in the competitor's domain into the search bar. Here you'll see all of your competitors' landing pages, see what products they advertise and how exactly:
Of course, just creating a landing page is not enough, you need to properly optimize it for relevant keywords.
It's a mundane task, but it can be automated. For instance, in Serpstat Keyword Clustering you can group keywords for separate pages and perform text analysis. The tool will analyze the top of search results (where your competitors are) and help you determine which keywords are better suited for meta tags and page content. Read more about keyword clustering and text analysis in this article.
The topic of landing pages is very broad, here we just highlighted the basics and pointed you in the right direction. If you want to go deeper into the details of landing pages, we recommend you to read these articles:
It's a mundane task, but it can be automated. For instance, in Serpstat Keyword Clustering you can group keywords for separate pages and perform text analysis. The tool will analyze the top of search results (where your competitors are) and help you determine which keywords are better suited for meta tags and page content. Read more about keyword clustering and text analysis in this article.
The topic of landing pages is very broad, here we just highlighted the basics and pointed you in the right direction. If you want to go deeper into the details of landing pages, we recommend you to read these articles:
SEO Writing Requirements
SEO texts help website pages rank higher in search engine results, that's just a given. A good SEO text should always be well-structured and include relevant keywords.
It's common for e-commerce websites to over-optimize their texts on product pages, landing pages, or blogs. However, search engines have a very negative attitude toward such content. As a result, they tend to consider it spammy and decrease its rankings.
Let's go over the basic requirements for SEO texts:
It's common for e-commerce websites to over-optimize their texts on product pages, landing pages, or blogs. However, search engines have a very negative attitude toward such content. As a result, they tend to consider it spammy and decrease its rankings.
Let's go over the basic requirements for SEO texts:
- It should be clear, easy to read, and shouldn't contain stylistic and spelling mistakes;
- It should be interesting to the target audience and include complete, accurate, and useful information;
- The structure of the content should be well-structured and understandable to the readers and search robots: have sections, headings, paragraphs, and lists;
- Don't just focus on the number of characters. Make sure to get your point across. Your main guideline should always be common sense: realistically, a description of a pencil and a smartphone in an online store can't have the same length. You can also analyze competitors' content for reference
- Graphic elements should always have an alt attribute with a description.
- The text should contain a sufficient number of relevant keywords but don't over-spam it (keyword stuffing). The keywords with the highest search volume should be used in meta tags and titles.
- The text should be at least 85% unique. Make sure to never plagiarize someone else's content.
- For convenience, the text should include numbered lists, bulleted lists, and tables.
- Work on internal linking. The high-quality text should always get linked to other relevant pages.
Local SEO for E-Commerce
Local SEO is a marketing technique that involves optimizing your online presence for better visibility in local search results.
Local SEO is relevant to any kind of business, focused on a certain area: physical stores, delivery services, handymen, and all kinds of offline businesses.
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According to recent research, 97% of users search for businesses or services near their location ("pharmacy near me" or "nearest 24-hour store"). More than 46% of all Google searches are local. Meanwhile, 56% of companies do not even have confirmed locations (cards) in Google Business Profile.
What Is The Advantage Of Local SEO For E-Commerce?
Allowing "nearby customers" to quickly find the product or service they want is a great way to increase your sales. With a good Local SEO strategy, you can:
- Get your business displayed in the search results just before the organic search results.
- Easily get reviews on Google.
- Get more backlinks from Facebook and Instagram.
- Improve site rankings through proximity-based search results.
- Give potential customers access to opening hours, phone number, address, etc.
How to Optimize A Website For Local Search
It's not a coincidence that we saved Local SEO for last. If you want to rank higher in the local search, you have to "convince" the search engine that your website is high-quality.
No matter how you look at it, you need to work on all basic requirements before you get to this one. Here are some of them:
No matter how you look at it, you need to work on all basic requirements before you get to this one. Here are some of them:
- Create high-quality content and release it regularly;
- Create an adaptive website design for mobile devices;
- Make your website easy to navigate and fast-loading;
- Get quality backlinks from trusted websites;
- Make your website secure;
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is a free tool that helps local businesses manage their business data on Google. A list of businesses appears in Google Search and on Google Maps with your business name, location, opening hours, reviews, website, and additional information.
Create an account and enter as much useful information about your business as you can. Add photos, respond to reviews, and always make sure to keep all the information accurate and up-to-date, including hours.
Here's a little rundown on Business Profiles from Google, as well as a guide from our blog.
Create an account and enter as much useful information about your business as you can. Add photos, respond to reviews, and always make sure to keep all the information accurate and up-to-date, including hours.
Here's a little rundown on Business Profiles from Google, as well as a guide from our blog.
Claim Your Website in Major Directories
It used to be advantageous to list your business in every directory you could find. But Google's algorithm has changed and now focuses more on other ranking signals.
However, it doesn't mean you don't need to add your company to a few directories that are relevant to your industry. They still carry some weight and will often be a credibility signal to potential customers.
It is vital to keep all the information about your business in all directories accurate and up-to-date: opening hours, location, website, etc., and if anything changes, make sure to update it as soon as possible and everywhere you can.
However, it doesn't mean you don't need to add your company to a few directories that are relevant to your industry. They still carry some weight and will often be a credibility signal to potential customers.
It is vital to keep all the information about your business in all directories accurate and up-to-date: opening hours, location, website, etc., and if anything changes, make sure to update it as soon as possible and everywhere you can.
Use Targeted Keywords
Here we are talking specifically about keywords that focus on local searches, such as "pharmacy near me," "clothing store [city]," etc. For instructions on how to search for such keywords, click here.
Write Relevant Industry Content
Let's say that you already create high-quality content on a regular basis, such as blog posts, videos, e-books, etc. If so, you're off to a great start! Content is one of the most effective ways to show Google (and potential customers) that you're an expert in certain areas.
But by focusing on local SEO, you also need to make some tweaks to the list of topics you write about. What questions do clients have that are relevant to your region? For example, if you sell gardening products, you could write about plants specific to your region, as well as harvest dates.
Remember those local keywords we talked about above? It's time to include them (naturally!) in your blog posts.
But by focusing on local SEO, you also need to make some tweaks to the list of topics you write about. What questions do clients have that are relevant to your region? For example, if you sell gardening products, you could write about plants specific to your region, as well as harvest dates.
Remember those local keywords we talked about above? It's time to include them (naturally!) in your blog posts.
Focus On Reviews
Search engines love reviews because they are a significant quality indicator of your product/service. And, of course, they're essential for potential customers because they research the reviews when deciding where to shop.
How do you get reviews? First, never pay for reviews. Aside from the fact that search engines will easily catch you, you'll end up losing your customers' trust.
The best (and safest) way to get more reviews is to simply ask customers to leave them. Put a reminder on your storefront, put a note in your product packaging, request it in your newsletter, etc.
How do you get reviews? First, never pay for reviews. Aside from the fact that search engines will easily catch you, you'll end up losing your customers' trust.
The best (and safest) way to get more reviews is to simply ask customers to leave them. Put a reminder on your storefront, put a note in your product packaging, request it in your newsletter, etc.
Get Local Links
Quality backlinks are an effective strategy for SEO in general, and it's just as important for local SEO. The difference is that instead of looking for backlink opportunities on larger platforms, you need to focus on websites that are well-established in your specific area. You can generate backlinks to your site in several ways:
- Write a guest post for a local blogger;
- Submit an article to your local newspaper or magazine that has an online version;
- Participate in local events;
- Publish information in business directories of the city or region;
- Sponsor local charities.
Add Structured Data To Your Website
We have spoken about structured data in a previous section, and it's also relevant for local SEO when you want to provide the user with all the necessary information to connect with you. Learn more about the types of structured data and how to get your website into (local) SERP features in this article.
Also, there's a convenient checklist for Local SEO for you to not miss any important steps.
Also, there's a convenient checklist for Local SEO for you to not miss any important steps.
Conclusion: Progress Evaluation and Rank Tracking
Any SEO work is meaningless if you don't track and analyze the results.
You should closely monitor your website's rankings in organic search results for the target keywords. If you've followed the advice from the previous sections, you already have a complete keywords list ready for analysis and, perhaps, the landing pages for it.
Go ahead and upload the data to the Serpstat Rank Tracker tool and monitor the ranking dynamics of your website:
You should closely monitor your website's rankings in organic search results for the target keywords. If you've followed the advice from the previous sections, you already have a complete keywords list ready for analysis and, perhaps, the landing pages for it.
Go ahead and upload the data to the Serpstat Rank Tracker tool and monitor the ranking dynamics of your website:
Don't forget to check the positions history:
As well as the top 100 competitors for your keywords, tags or groups of pages:
Read about all the tips and tricks for this tool in the following article — Serpstat Rank Tracker: A Complete Guide.
Good luck!
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