SEO For eCommerce: On-Page Optimization

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing web pages to earn organic traffic and improve a website’s rankings in SERPs (search engine results pages). It has to do with the content that lives on your website’s pages, such as blog posts and landing pages.

Standard on-page SEO is multifaceted; its practices include optimizing content, internal links, URLs, and meta tags. It’s not the same as off-page SEO, which optimizes what happens off your eCommerce website and focuses on backlinks, for example. However, on-page eCommerce SEO is important because it helps search engines understand your website’s content and identify its relevance to a searcher’s query.

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How do I optimize on-page SEO for my eCommerce store?

There are numerous technical components of on-page SEO for eCommerce that should be optimized to increase your organic traffic. Let’s review the basics to help you get started.

Use the Right Keywords for eCommerce on-page SEO

Conducting keyword research detects the types of keywords your customers are searching for online. When you include them in your on-page SEO, you’ll rank higher on SERPs (Google Search Result Pages) and receive more traffic to your website. Google Ads Keyword Planner is an integrated tool, among others, that can help you find high-ranking keywords for your on-page SEO.

Optimize your Product Pages

There are a host of ways to optimize eCommerce SEO on your product pages. Making sure you use keywords relatable to your product pages is just the tip of the iceberg. Try assessing your website’s pages from your customers’ perspective. Do they effectively take them through the buyers’ funnel? How easy or difficult is it to navigate your products? Thinking about making your customers’ experience more enjoyable on your product pages influences on-page SEO for eCommerce.

Start a blog!

Blogging boosts your eCommerce website’s positioning if it provides relevant answers to your customers’ questions. Blog posts that specifically use on-page SEO tactics like readable URLs,  correct meta tags, and long-tail keywords boost SERPs. And, of course, build brand credibility.  Simple evergreen content, the type that contains timeless and valuable information that can be used repeatedly, will also boost your rank over longer periods of time.

Utilize Different Types of Media for Your Blogs

Videos, podcasts, and written text appeal to different segments of your target market. Part of on-page SEO for eCommerce includes using ‘Alt text.’ This is a short, written description (source code) of an image used by accessibility tools to read image descriptions and enables search engines to crawl and rank your eCommerce page accordingly.

‘Alt text’ looks something like this: <img src=”bird.png” alt=”Rooster”>.  You can read the image of a bird, but the ‘alt text’ specifies a rooster. ‘Alt text’ generally contains fewer than 125 characters and describes both the image’s subject and context.

Fill Out Your Meta

Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content. They don’t appear on the actual page – only in the page’s source code. Title tags and meta descriptions are two important meta tags that influence on-page SEO. Also, try including relevant keywords.

User Reviews Can Improve Your On-Page eCommerce SEO

Search engines like Google love fresh and relevant content. A steady flow of favorable reviews and ratings that are keyword-rich are permanent website assets. Search engines crawl and rank these reviews so that shoppers can find them. Google also ranks businesses that respond to reviews higher than those that don’t, as it proves greater credibility.

Use Different Optimized Media

Videos account for 82% of internet traffic. Certain consumers are more likely to engage with video than reading text. If your videos’ metadata is correctly optimized, you will draw quality traffic to your website, which eventually boosts overall-page SEO. Any video you produce or use should be relevant to your content marketing strategy and encourage customers down the buyers funnel.

Interlinking is Crucial

Users and search engines use links to find content on your website. Interlinking is the process of linking one page on your website to another and is key to search engine optimization for eCommerce. A search engine can’t find a page if there are no links to it. So if a blog post or page gets many links, this is a signal to Google that it’s an important or high-value article and will rank higher.

Drive Your SEO Score Up with FAQ Sections

Nothing drives on-page SEO success like providing relevant, precise answers with long-tail keywords. A properly formatted FAQ section improves customers satisfaction and SEO for your entire eCommerce website. Google values websites focused on helping customers, and providing information your customers commonly search for also encourages them further along the buyers’ journey.

Your Pages Should Be Fast

Speed matters when it comes to customer service. Google recommends a webpage load time under two seconds. In fact, half a second is optimum. Users visit an average of 5.6 more pages if their load time is under two seconds. Moreover, search engines use load times in their algorithm to determine SERP ranking. Thus, even the slightest tweaks can retain leads and increase revenue.

Organize Your Structured Data

Together with structured data, on-page optimization helps search engines correctly understand what your eCommerce website is about. This encourages a stronger relevancy signal and a higher ranking.  Known as schema markup, structured data is often referred to as the “language of search engines” because it helps them contextualize and match website content to relevant search queries. The more organized your data, the easier it is for search engines to crawl.

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Conclusion

While the application of on-page SEO requires technical know-how, search engine optimization for eCommerce, like the name entails, is geared towards making an eCommerce website rank as high as possible on SERPs. It requires strategy and time but ultimately, delivers results when correctly executed.