Simple SEO Checklist for Ecommerce
The SEO referencing of product pages is a crucial issue for e-commerce players. Today, over 50% of consumers do their research online before buying a product.
Faced with the multiplicity of online sales sites in the world, how to optimize your e-commerce referencing and appear in the first results of search engines?
In this article, we’ll give you tips to help you optimize your product pages to increase their visibility on search engines, and improve their conversion rate.
How is a product page structured?
All of these elements are points that you will be able to exploit and optimize to improve the natural referencing of your product pages and their visibility. We will cover all of the following aspects:
- Url
- Categories
- Securities
- Short and long descriptions
- Pictures
- Internal mesh
The goal is to give you basic good practices to adopt in designing and writing the content of your product pages.
Why optimizing your e-commerce SEO is important
What e-merchant today has not asked himself the question of acquiring visibility online? Today, 93% of Internet users will stay on the 1st page of Google, hence the advantage of maximizing your chances of appearing on this first page or even in the first 3 results.
Position your products in front of qualified prospects
Working on your e-commerce referencing will allow you to position your products in front of Internet users in active research. By targeting the right keywords, you’ll ensure your product pages appear at the heart of the buying process with people showing an interest in the type of products you’re selling.
If you haven’t done a keyword study to identify these search terms, you can use the Keyword Planner and Google Trends tools to identify them, although their accuracy does not match paid tools like SEMRush.
Increase traffic to your website
The more your product pages are optimized, the more likely they are to rise in search results. This progression will then increase traffic to your website: 1st position Google generates 33% of clicks against 18% in the second position. These first two positions share more than 50% of the traffic.
Increase your sales
An optimized product page will not only increase the visibility of your product. By working on aspects related to the user experience, your product pages will have a better conversion rate. More visitors and a better conversion rate: the impact of e-commerce referencing on your sales figures will be direct.
1. Define the tree structure of your site according to your keywords
An essential element before optimizing your e-commerce SEO is to work the tree structure of your online store. A successful user experience is primarily based on simple, intuitive and fluid navigation.
Identify keywords and define your categories
As a first step, it is recommended to do a semantic audit of the keywords corresponding to your activity to build the structure of your site. The study of the keywords allows you to optimize the name of your categories and to define the key terms associated with each.
Offer consistent navigation: breadcrumbs
By optimizing the structure of your e-commerce site, you will allow Google’s algorithms to understand the logic and hierarchy between your pages and your categories, and thus to reference your website with more relevance (against good searches). This principle is called breadcrumbs.
Breadcrumbs example: Home> Category name> Sub-category name> Product name
The yarn is representative of the structure of the site. It broadens the lexical field associated with key words and promotes internal networking (we will tackle this point very quickly).
2. Optimize URLs for e-commerce SEO
Rename your urls
Depending on the CMS selected for your online store (Shopify, WooCommerce, SquareSpace), your URL may be generated automatically. Otherwise, you have the option of filling it in yourself. Typically, auto-generated URLs use the product title. Do not hesitate to check them and rename them if necessary.
The URL should be short, descriptive and of course contain the main keyword of your page. Search engine robots instantly understand the theme of your page. On the other hand, it must be explicit enough to entice the user to click.
Fix 404 errors and redirects
Google likes websites that are in good shape. 404 errors and broken images affect your e-commerce SEO as well as the user experience of your visitors. In our comprehensive SEO audit guide, we walked you through how to identify and fix these technical issues.
Then, take the necessary corrective actions and set up redirects to reduce the number of pages showing an error. Google will detect the improvements made and thus promote your e-commerce referencing.
3. Write optimized titles for e-commerce SEO
Write an SEO optimized title
The title must not only contain the main keyword defined but also make the Internet user want to consult the product sheet.
The recommended standard structure is to include the name of the product, one of its attributes, and your brand. There are approximately 60 to 60 characters for a title. Here is an example :
Do not hesitate to put in the title the advantages of your product or any differentiator that it may have against the competition. To learn all about writing a great SEO title, check out our guide to the perfect SEO title.
Apply a unique title for each product in your catalog
Google will mainly rely on the words used in the titles of the page of your product sheet to match them to Internet user searches. Your titles should therefore be unique and personalized for each product you sell.
If you have a product in different versions, it is better:
Either offer them in combination on a single product sheet
Or, differentiate them by adding a reference in the title
This will prevent you from being penalized by Google for duplicate content.
4. Write unique product descriptions
Descriptions should also be optimized, as they represent the largest part of your website content.
It is best to write your own descriptions in the style of your business writing. Each description must be unique on each product page.
Avoid duplicate content
When Google identifies duplicate content throughout your website, it considers the information to be less relevant which can lead it to lower your e-commerce ranking in search results.
There are two types of duplicate content:
E-merchants often opt to copy and paste descriptions of their suppliers. Google recognizes duplicate content and penalizes it.
The second bad practice widespread among e-merchants is to have two products in their catalog with the same description.
You can analyze duplicate content on your site using the SEO tool: Siteliner (free). It will tell you what proportion of your content is duplicated.
Go for a short description if your approach is purely commercial
The short description is located above the waterline, it must be able to answer the main questions of the user immediately and explicitly. While it should understand the various phrases associated with your keyword, the short description has mostly a business approach.
The idea is to include all the strengths and benefits of your product. When writing, put yourself in your client’s shoes. Then, describe all the benefits that the product will give him. The customer must be reassured and convinced. If they cannot touch the product, they need to be well informed.
Go for a long description to favor e-commerce SEO
The long description will tend to promote your e-commerce SEO. It is made up of ten lines presenting your product.
It is important in this space to bring quality content. Do not just include exhaustively the technical characteristics of the product as in the short description.
1. Work on a semantic universe based on your keyword and enriched with synonyms or alternative expressions.
2. Add detail while demonstrating the benefit of the product for your customer. A detailed description allows you to be even more visible on search engines.
3. Don’t hesitate to structure your description using SEO-friendly captions.
Ultimately, the descriptions of your product sheets must be unique and irreproachable. They must be able to act as a sales pitch but also be optimized for SEO. Good practice is to provide quality, structured and detailed content.
5. Reinforce the e-commerce natural referencing of your images
Whether you make just one of these mistakes or you do all of them, there is no need to worry. SEO is a constantly changing field and to improve SEO, you have to work continuously, whether you are an expert or a total beginner.
Stay patient, avoid the mistakes we have mentioned as much as possible and above all, constantly monitor your progress. You can also go even deeper into the subject with our guide on how to do a full SEO audit to make sure you get off on the right foot.
Format your images for the web
If on a classic website, images must be compressed to gain as much light as possible, in e-commerce, quality must remain your priority. However, remember to lighten the weight of your images to prevent them from affecting your site’s loading speed. Our image optimization guide will show you how.
Regarding the product photo, it is advisable to offer different angles on a white background: front view, top view, side view and if possible one or two photos of the product in the situation. Many e-merchants also opt for 3D or 360 ° visuals.
Optimize the name and ALT tags for e-commerce SEO
Among the identifiers of an image on the web, two are important for your e-commerce natural referencing:
- The filename
- The alternative tag
When you embed your image in your CMS, complete the ALT tags (or alt text), or alt text. They should contain a description of your image and relevant keywords related to your image.
6. Expand the internal mesh
Internet mailing consists of inserting links on your product page to other pages on your site. The number of links that point to a page helps Google determine its importance. The more internal links one of your pages receives, the more likely Google will be to highlight it.
In this context, internal networking is often used to offer associated products, complementary products or similar products that will support your cross-selling strategy. For example, you can choose to link to your products with the best conversion rates in order to strengthen the e-commerce referencing of these specific pages. The idea remains above all to offer a product that is likely to appeal to your Internet user.
You are ready to optimize your e-commerce SEO!
Search engines appreciate fresh, regularly updated content. Through this article, we want to give you some basics to start optimizing your product pages and improve your e-commerce SEO. However, this work is part of the context of continuous improvement. So don’t take any optimization for granted!
