The world of e-commerce optimization is vast and complex, and it demands a particular level of attention in order to function and perform correctly.
Regardless of the intended audience, most e-commerce sites suffer from similar optimization issues. These issues prevent them from maximizing their exposure to qualified traffic and the related revenue.
Usually, these problems are connected to how business stakeholders approach the development of their e-commerce platform, placing user experience and aesthetics over search engine optimization (SEO).
When brands focus on building e-commerce environments that are attractive and functional but ignore or forget about SEO, they immediately lose opportunities to attract and convert new customers from organic channels.
The good news is that by adhering to the following e-commerce optimization recommendations, you can create an environment that is functional and attractive and introduces your brand to new potential customers.
Create unique product descriptions
Most e-commerce brands are managed by internal specialists or merchants who are experts on their products. However, these individuals aren’t usually aware of what SEO is or how it works. Because of this, most people who are responsible for managing online inventories tend to exclude product descriptions, create shallow descriptions or pull descriptions directly from the manufacturer. Without product descriptions that are informative, engaging and unique, your products will be unable to rank well within premier organic search listings. Regardless of what products your brand offers, try to create 150- to 300-word descriptions that speak to your target audience’s search intentions, while also framing the products in environments where they are best suited.
Implement product reviews
Posting product reviews alongside each item your brand offers is an excellent way to inject relevant content into your product pages. Product reviews are user-generated, which means they are free for you to leverage. Try to attract as many consumer reviews and testimonials as possible in order to demonstrate value and authority to search engines, while also driving more conversions from your customers.
Optimize for relevant search queries
Your internal marketing team may love coming up with creative ways to label your products, but if your customers don’t understand those labels, their efforts become ineffective. Optimizing your products by name is critical for allowing search engines to understand what you have and who your products are made for. Do not optimize your products for secondary details such as SKUs, colors or sizes.
Do not cram keywords into product pages
Instead of embedding your product’s name throughout your description, offer information that helps your customers and describes the value of your services. Doing so will improve user engagement, enhance organic authority and drive conversions.
Fulfill all image alt text
Considering how many images tend to appear within e-commerce sites, it’s important that each is accompanied by relevant alt text.
Create unique titles
Title tags allow search engines to understand the content of specific landing pages. Avoid creating duplicate titles across your site by forgoing the use of manufacturer or vendor titles, as these are likely the same titles they have sent to your competitors.
Include social sharing functionality
User engagement derived from social sharing has a direct influence on organic rankings, as well as the actual signals that are sent to search engines every time someone shares one of your pages.
Courtesy of SearchEngineLand
