Did you know that search engines have been found to generate ten times more traffic to ecommerce websites compared to social media platforms? As an ecommerce business owner, you want to tap into that and have more people step right into your sales funnel. The question is, how?

To get search engines to send people your way, you should utilize search engine optimization (SEO). It’s the secret sauce that can boost your online visibility, drive organic traffic, and ultimately increase sales.

As an ecommerce brand, you know that standing out in the digital landscape is crucial for success. With millions of websites vying for attention, a solid SEO strategy is essential. To help you develop a solid SEO strategy, here are a few practical and proven SEO tips you can follow to receive more traffic to your ecommerce site.

1. Hire an SEO agency

By entrusting the technical SEO work to professionals, you can ensure your website meets the requirements of search engines, leading to improved rankings and visibility. After all, they have the expertise and experience to optimize websites for search engines.

SEO agencies are well-versed in the technical aspects of SEO and have access to advanced tools and resources. These tools help them with in-depth keyword research, competitor analysis, and performance tracking. And with all these, they can develop a comprehensive SEO strategy tailored to your ecommerce brand.

2. Start with keyword research

Not everyone may have the option to hire an SEO agency right off the bat. If you’re a part of that group, you may want to get your hands dirty yourself. To start your SEO journey, the first step is keyword research.

Identifying keywords that resonate with your products and target audience is crucial to optimizing your ecommerce website for search engines. To do that, use keyword research tools. With them, you can uncover valuable search terms and identify which can potentially drive the most traffic.

Once you have identified the right or ideal keywords that you need to work on, strategically incorporate them into various sections of your website. Some common places you can insert them are product descriptions, category pages, and even blog content. This strategic integration of keywords throughout your site will help boost your organic rankings and improve your visibility in relevant eCommerce categories.

3. Leverage user-generated content

Encourage your customers to leave comments, reviews, ratings, and testimonials about your products or services. The messages and ratings your customers leave can serve as social proof and help with your brand reputation and credibility. Also, they can help with your SEO, as most search engines value fresh and unique content, which is what user-generated reviews are.

To entice your customers to leave content, implement user-friendly review and rating functionalities on your product pages. They’ll make it easy for customers to leave feedback and ensure their reviews are visible to other visitors.

Also, consider featuring positive testimonials prominently on your website to showcase the satisfaction of previous customers. And be sure to respond to and acknowledge customer reviews and demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. Doing these also encourage engagement and interaction.

4. Optimize product pages

Optimizing your product pages is essential for driving conversions on your ecommerce website. You can do this by following these tips:

• Craft unique and compelling meta titles and descriptions for each product page. These meta tags serve as concise snippets of information in search engine results, influencing click-through rates and organic traffic to your product pages.
• Assign descriptive alt tags to each image, giving text descriptions that enhance visibility in image searches.
• Focus on creating informative and engaging product descriptions and incorporating relevant keywords in them.
• Highlight each product’s unique benefits and features, providing valuable information for potential customers and search engines.

Pay attention to the optimization of your product images, as they will make up the bulk of the pages search engines will index for your rankings.

5. Optimize for local search

To stay ahead of the competition, optimize for local search and target local customers. This is vital if you have physical store locations or serve specific regions.

To do that, incorporate location-specific keywords throughout your website’s content. Focus on keywords that include your city, region, or neighborhood to increase the relevance of your website in local search results. You can also consider creating location-specific landing pages or content that caters to the needs and interests of customers in different areas.

6. Enhance site speed

A slow-loading website is a major turn-off for users and impacts your search engine rankings negatively. If you think your site has this problem, fix this by compressing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and leveraging caching techniques. Also, consider subscribing to or using a content delivery network (CDN) to increase your site speed.

Optimizing your website’s speed is essential for a smooth user experience. Also, it improves your search engine visibility.

7. Ensure a mobile-friendly design

With the rise of mobile usage, having a mobile-friendly website design is no longer an option but a vital necessity. To ensure mobile users can access and view your site properly, focus on creating a fully responsive design that seamlessly adjusts to different screen sizes.

Also, implement touch-friendly buttons, easy-to-read fonts, and streamlined navigation menus to achieve a mobile-friendly design. And don’t forget about your website’s loading speed on mobile devices. Additionally, ensure your content is easily readable on smaller screens, avoiding users needing to zoom in or scroll excessively.

The bottom line

Applying SEO in ecommerce stores matters a lot. Nowadays, most online shoppers begin their journey with a search engine query, and that’s why leveraging SEO presents a tremendous opportunity to capture this audience and drive sales while establishing brand recognition. So, follow these tips, and watch your ecommerce site receive more traffic and potentially more sales.