SEO for E-commerce Websites - E-commerce search engine optimisation

As a web design and search engine marketing company we are constantly researching new ways to make our clients e-commerce websites more SEO friendly. The reason is simple, up to 60% of online purchases are initiated with a search engine query. This is a statistic quoted by Volusion, and backed up by our own research across client campaigns. Within some verticals (electronics, gifts etc) we find that closer to 75-80% of an online businesses sales can be generated directly from Google searches.

As an e-commerce website owner you simply can’t afford for your website to not appear when potential customers are searching for your products in Google. There is simply no more targeted way to generate sales.

This article outlines methods which should be considered in order to improve search engine rankings for your store in Google. These are methods that should increase the SEO friendliness of almost any e-commerce or online store.

XML Site Map:

An XML site map is an automated tool which allows search engines like Google to view an up-to-date snapshot of every page/product on your website. For an e-commerce website this will provide Google with a snapshot of your department and product level pages. This will be central to when, and how, Google updates your website within its index. Ensure your website has an XML site map that contains all relevant data to properly integrate with Google Webmaster Tools(www.google.com/webmasters/tools/). The Webmaster Tools Help section contains plain language advice on what should be included in your site map. This will ensure that when you add, edit and even delete products that this is reflected in the Google index.

Google Analytics E-Commerce Integration:

Ensure that your online store doesn’t just include Google Analytics code, but also activate the Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking feature. This is a feature that will pass rich sales data back into your Google Analytics account. In and of itself this will not improve your rankings, but overtime the ecommerce data being fed back into your account will put you in a far more informed position to make SEO changes to your online store.

Product Level Page Optimisation:

It is simply vital that every single one of your products (whether it be 1 or 100,000) has its own (SEO Friendly) page on your website. Running an ecommerce store puts you in a fortunate position where you can optimise each of your products on its own page. If you stock a Toshiba-1625GH computer, this product should have its own optimised page on your website. This page should be optimised with content in the points below. Unfortunately competitors stocking the same product will have the same opportunity. A common problem we find is that website owners will roll all products in a department onto one department level page which detracts from the chance of each product ranking well in Google.

Control Meta Data On Individual Products:

Given that most e-commerce stores these days run off one module / system (eg not hand-crafted pages) it is vital that the system you are using gives you SEO controls on individual product pages. You must be able to enter SEO friendly content for each product including elements like Page Title, Meta Description and Header Tags.

SEO Friendly URLs:

On the product page you will be behind your competition unless you take advantage of SEO friendly URL’s. These are URLS that show Google information on the product within the URL structure. Use http://www.yourdomain.com.au/store/department/product-name not http://www.yourdomain.com.au/store/department/sgaUY%&.php . It is absolutely vital that the system you are using does not display products as a parameter, eg http://www.yourdomain.com.au/store.php?product=987688 . This is a rankings killer.

Body Content / Description:

On any given page, the product description will likely be one of the more important (or potentially important) elements on your product pages. This is where you can inform Google about the product in question, and what makes it amazing. A big issue in this area is duplicate content. Typically manufacturers supply all of their retailers with the same boilerplate descriptions of their products. If possible alter this content. If you don’t you will be competing with dozens, maybe hundreds of product pages from competitors with the same content. Include SEO specific keywords such as alternative product codes, singular and plural of product names, more creative descriptions of the product, and anything to make your content richer and more interesting that your competitors.

Reviews:

An excellent way to ensure your product pages contain relevant and unique content is to include a review section on each of your products. As users submit reviews you will find that your product pages contain keyword rich content about products unlike that on your competitor’s websites. This is something Google loves.

Product Codes:

A customer that goes into Google and searches for a product code, eg Toshiba-1625GH is far closer to making a purchase than one that just searches for a brand, eg Toshiba. If applicable, ensure that all products with product codes have these codes on the individual e-commerce product page. This should also include common variations of product codes such as “Toshiba-1625GH” “Toshiba1625 GH” “Toshiba-1625G”.

Rich Product Content:

Google loves rich content and the nature of e-commerce lends itself to such SEO friendly content on each product page. Wherever possible include product imagery on the product page including alt-text. Embed videos of product (from YouTube if necessary) for a richer experience. When uploading such content ensure that you (or your system) optimises this content for size and loading. Google will penalise you for slow or clunky page loads.

Duplicate Content:

As touched on above, duplicate content is an issue with large e-commerce catalogues. Firstly you have to worry about sourcing identical product information as your competitors. But you also need to ensure that there is only one version of a product on your website. Eg if you stock a Toshiba-1625GH notebook and it relates to both the Personal and Business computer departments, you need to make sure that only one copy of the product page is supplied to Google.

Domain Integrity:

It is important when developing an e-commerce module into your website that the store sits on your domain. Don’t use subdomains, eg http://store.yourdomain.com.au . Ensure your store is part of your domain http://www.yourdomain.com.au/store. Otherwise you are fighting an unnecessary uphill battle with Google viewing your store and website as two separate websites.

Brand / Department Landing Pages:

Many of the steps above focus on product level optimisation. Don’t forget to create brand / department level pages that are themselves optimised. Many users will search for brand “Toshiba” rather than a specific product. So make sure that you optimise your website for the type of products you sell, the brands you stock as well as each product.

These are just a few of the things you need to do to assist with the SEO friendliness of your online store. Depending on your industry, website, competition and target market there are likely dozens of other SEO ecommerce techniques to consider. If you would like some professional SEO assistance in this area, be in contact with us.