SEO is a case-by-case situation; no single SEO strategy can simply be replicated. Every industry has its own specific considerations. An SEO strategy for e-commerce is truly different from one for a B2B website. In this article, we’ll give you a glimpse into an SEO strategy for online stores and offer tips for your e-commerce website.
As an e-commerce manager or entrepreneur, you’re constantly looking for ways to generate more revenue, improve margins, and reduce your reliance on paid ads. SEO is a powerful but often underestimated channel in e-commerce. It delivers sustainable visibility without relying on advertising budgets. While Google Ads stop running as soon as your budget runs out, a strong SEO strategy keeps you consistently visible to your target audience. Furthermore, an optimized online store contributes to higher conversion rates and strengthens your brand in the long term.
First and foremost, you need a solid technical foundation for e-commerce. You want visitors to be able to navigate the website easily, but you also want to ensure they don’t run into any roadblocks. A good user experience is incredibly important.
But that foundation is also important for search engines. Especially with a large online store, you want to ensure that the crawl budget is used optimally. In addition, with AI on the horizon, it will be incredibly important for the website to have a solid structure.
For both people and machines, a solid technical foundation is the starting point for any e-commerce SEO strategy. So always work on the website’s technical aspects first before moving on to further development. If these aren’t in order, you’ll eventually find that you’ve hit a ceiling in terms of organic growth.
Everyone benefits from a little structure. For example, a well-organized menu structure helps visitors navigate the website easily. But in this case, it’s safe to say that e-commerce loves SEO. E-commerce SEO focuses on providing a good user experience, and structure plays a key role in that.
SEO provides structure to a website. By developing the internal link structure and creating a good menu structure, you make it easier for visitors and Google to navigate the site.
An additional benefit of developing this structure is that it gives you a clear overview. With many online stores, we see that content gets lost over time amid all the other content being created. This creates a risk of internal cannibalization and duplicate content. It’s a huge waste, but with a clear structure, you can easily address this.
A visitor to your online store wants to be sure that the purchase they’re about to make is secure. Whether you’re selling a T-shirt or a sauna, you shouldn’t treat them any differently. Make sure all the information is clear.
A product page should therefore leave no questions unanswered for potential buyers. Make sure every page contains complete information. This way, you provide clear and helpful content for visitors, which in turn boosts your E-E-A-T.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Although most people still think Google has a single algorithm, there are actually many algorithms at play. One of these is E-E-A-T—the metric that measures how trustworthy you are and whether you’re an expert on the products you sell.
This algorithm was developed to ensure that you can safely access information and, therefore, shop safely. And this algorithm takes even the smallest signals into account. Consider, for example, a VAT number in the footer. These are small signals that help Google determine whether you’re a trustworthy business.
So make sure your e-commerce store complies with the E-E-A-T guidelines. This involves small details, but also bigger factors like reviews. A positive review goes a long way toward building trust with potential buyers.
In addition, clearly state who is responsible for the content on your online store. Include author information in blog posts and provide transparency about your company, for example through a detailed “About Us” page. Don’t forget to provide information about your return policy, payment options, customer service, and shipping terms. These are all factors that contribute to your credibility and, in turn, to better SEO performance.
That trust from visitors doesn’t come solely from E-E-A-T. Of course, it helps if you provide clear information, but that’s not the whole story. A good experience goes beyond just SEO. In our view, UX is essentially part of SEO as well.
A good website is user-friendly. That means a good user experience goes beyond just a good structure. The website must be clear in terms of colors, buttons, and so on.
When an online store is intuitive, you’ll notice that visitors have an easier time navigating the checkout process. So it makes sense to place an order in your own online store every now and then. That way, you can see for yourself how easy it is.
In addition, it’s a good idea to analyze key conversion points—such as the shopping cart and checkout page—for ease of use. This includes minimizing load times, removing distracting elements, and adding trust factors such as certification seals and customer service information. Improving on-site search functionality can also have a major impact on both user-friendliness and SEO.
Do you want to show that you’re the expert? Then be sure to build your topical authority. Do you sell T-shirts? Then you need to show that you know everything about T-shirts, from seam to hem. Just make sure to do it smartly!
Another smart way to leverage topical authority is, once again, structure. Make sure you provide information in the right places. For example, it’s better to discuss the history of T-shirts in a blog post than on a product page. So don’t just cover every aspect of a topic—make sure it’s placed in the right places.
Work with clear content clusters centered around your product categories. For example: Do you sell athletic apparel? If so, make sure you have theme pages on running gear, athletic shoes, accessories, etc., supplemented with blog posts on styling advice, seasonal collections, and care tips. Strategically link these articles to one another using internal links to build authority at both the topic and domain levels.
An online store with poor-quality images just won’t do. For sales, it’s incredibly important to have good images of your products. Of course, you’ll want to add the right captions, alt tags, and so on, but above all, the images must be high-quality and load quickly.
In addition to the well-known paid Shopping ads, Google now also offers the option to display products for free in the Shopping tab and in regular search results through Google Organic Shopping. It’s becoming increasingly important to make your products visible within Organic Shopping as well. In the U.S., this is already hugely popular, and you can use filters to search for products within the regular search results. Organic Shopping is beneficial for all online stores, regardless of the product range you offer.
Ensure you have a correct and optimized product feed via Google Merchant Center. Add structured data to product pages that includes all required information, such as price, inventory status, brand, and GTIN. Have you added all the required structured data? If so, be sure to include as many of the recommended fields as possible. Also, pay attention to the quality and content of your product titles and descriptions. This will increase your chances of appearing in the free Shopping results without spending any ad budget.
Please note: Google also evaluates your website experience, mobile-friendliness, and reliability when determining whether you qualify for organic Shopping listings. SEO and Google Organic Shopping therefore go hand in hand.
A good website provides visitors with a clear overview. But Google also likes a clear overview. One way to achieve this is through structured data. This makes it easy to increase the visibility of specific products as well as information about your company.
So, use structured data wisely for your online store. This will help you gain visibility in a variety of ways and make it easier for Google to index your website.
Our team of SEO experts would be happy to help you make your online store easier to find and develop a sustainable SEO strategy. Contact us for a no-obligation introductory meeting.
Lotte has been working at SmartRanking since 2018 and has built up extensive expertise as an SEO consultant over the years. She currently serves as Head of Operations & HR, where she is responsible for managing internal processes as well as guiding and developing the team. Her SEO expertise spans e-commerce, B2B, and more complex websites where E-E-A-T plays a crucial role. Her passion lies in advising on and developing comprehensive strategies, as well as helping the people around her grow.