5 Simple SEO Ecommerce Tips

Without a doubt, ranking higher than your ecommerce competitors is crucial. Less clicks means less sales, and studies have shown that the lower you are in rankings, the lower your click through rate will be. A common tactic to help increase your CTR prior to achieving higher rank, and one that can provide immediate results, is the consistent use of your social media accounts. But did you know that social media can ALSO help your SEO? To put yourself in the best position possible, read this post on how Social Media helps SEO.

When starting out, it’s important to get everyone together at the same time. Your SEO consultant, web designer, and information architect should all be working cohesively for a more effective, optimized website. The same rules apply if you are working on a redesign. For the best possible outcome, check out these five simple SEO ecommerce tips.

Find proper solutions for duplicate content.

One of the most common issues with ecommerce websites is duplicate content problems. This is something Google takes very seriously and continues to crack down on. Duplicate content could be the result of a non-intuitive website structure, poor planning, or other issue. While avoiding duplicate content may seem like an easy thing to do, it’s important to understand how Google analyzes this information. For example, two separate URLs that direct to the same content page could be read as duplicate content to search engine algorithms. Other common culprits are session IDs or printer-friendly content versions of pages.

There are three primary types of duplicate content, and each should be addressed properly. Removing duplicate content can become increasingly difficult if you have a massive site with dozens or hundreds of existing pages and are cleaning things up. In the ideal situation, your designers and developers are aware of the potential for duplicate content early on. In other cases, work with your SEO agency to come up with an applicable solution.

Utilize ecommerce tracking tools.

While traffic growth is a great sign that you’re headed in the right direction, understanding how that traffic is converting into sales is crucial, too. In the competitive ecommerce space, data is everything, and can be used to propel your business even further. Your numbers can be a highly effective way to identify the value of your marketing efforts. Many ecommerce business owners utilize Google Analytics’ ecommerce tracking feature. This reveals precisely how SEO improvements have affected profit. In the end, the dollar results trump page views, clicks, and rankings.

With your tracking and a thorough understanding of your tracking tools in order, you can easily demonstrate your focus on the bottom line, rather than appearing as if you’ve just fixed your position with Google. In turn, this can lead to a better standing with clients and investors; no one can deny a better ROI.

Maintain pages for out of stock and expired items.

For out of stock items that you intend to have available later, leave them up and offer relevant alternatives via plugins or widgets. Alternatives could include the same product in different colors, different models or versions, or similar products from other brands.

Keeping them up is better than hiding, replacing, or deleting them because it helps search engines better understand your site’s structure and locate relevant pages. Similarly, you shouldn’t delete pages belonging to products you no longer sell. This is a no-no for SEO. There are several better solutions in this case, including redirecting the page to a parent category, deleting with a 410 status code, reusing the URL, or using a 301 redirect.

Treat category pages like home pages.

Category pages are extremely powerful and provide users and search engines with the best service and information about you page. Use this opportunity to increase SEO with content in category sections. Each page should be treated individually and built with deep links to product categories, and all content should have social sharing features. Be sure to use search-friendly URLs to provide search engines with an idea of what your page is about.

Leverage user generated content.

Unless you’re worried about the quality of your product or service, this shouldn’t be a problem. User-generated content can lead to increased sales and conversion rates, and the resulting unique content will perform better in search engines. Build a community with reviews and testimonials, which in turns establishes trust with potential buyers. If applicable, use Schema to place review ratings beside your listing in search engines.