Ecommerce SEO: The Ultimate SEO Checklist 2020

Are you looking to get started with a new eCommerce website or updating the existing one? 

It is essential to optimize the content and website structure to drive sales with your eCommerce SEO efforts. Here's a checklist with best practices that will help you attract more customers and generate more sales. 

Let's dive in!

1. Perform Keyword Research

Keyword research is the base of every eCommerce SEO. Especially if you want to optimize the category pages and products. Your list of keywords should influence your site architecture, technical SEO, and URLs. 

Ecommerce Keyword research is a vital step to improve organic search rankings. While conducting keyword research, list down the top searched keywords, long-tail keywords, search volumes, queries, and competition. You can make use of eCommerce SEO tools to conduct SEO and competitor research, SEO audits, backlink analysis, link building, topic analysis, and more.  

2. Optimize Your SEO Title

You should use unique SEO titles for every page on your website. Ensure that you use the popular keyword in the title tag. Using relevant title tags can boost the website visibility and click-through rate in organic search results. 

The links should lead to a specific page where the user is intended to formerly browsed. This also helps the search engines to display your relevant results to the audience. Easy to read URLs help the search engines and people to understand the context of the webpage. Avoid using repetitive keywords on a single page URL. 

3. Improve Page Load Time

Page loading time creates an impact on your audience mindset. The best page load time should be about 2-3 seconds. Improving page load time can reduce redirects. To improve site load time, optimize images, use video by uploading from an external source, and minify HTTP requests. Enable browser caching and deactivate extra plugins on your CMS to provide a better user experience for your website audience.  

4. Optimize Videos and Visuals

While you use eCommerce SEO tactics to optimize each page of your website. One of the best practices to use images and videos to engage the audience with the product you offer. High engagement improves on-page elements of the site and increases the chances of search engine results pages. Optimize images, file names, and Alt text. 

Alt text and image descriptions are crucial to SEO ranking. Using alt text can help search engines better understand how the content and images related. Consider using a detailed description and keyword as the image file name. Renaming the images with a descriptive name allows the search engine to differentiate your other images on the search and increases online visibility. 

5. Use Rich Snippets

In general, the title tag, meta description, and URL are displayed when the webpage shows ups on the search results page. Rich snippets can reveal more details about the product or the webpage, including reviews, prices, products, and many more on the search results. Even though it is temporary, rich snippets can improve your website ranking in the organic search results. It is because the algorithm is continuously changing and updating. 

6. Create Informational Content

Creating informational content that drives value to your product page ranking. This will more likely reduce the bounce rate and can guide the visitor to find answers to the questions. 

One of the ways to attract traffic is to provide useful and informational content like "how-to" guides and question keywords. You can have a blog or resource section with categories to offer loads of instructional material to help your customers

7. Generate a Call to Action

Call to action is crucial to driving customers throughout the sales funnel. Usually, there are three types of Calls to action that are used for eCommerce. You should use the cart button on the product page to start the purchase. 

A compelling call to actions on your homepage for promoting different products like offers, limited editions, or any seasonal promotions. The last type is an overview, which allows the visitor to add the product to the cart from the search result without any logins.

8. Optimize for Mobile-Friendly

Mobile phones are the most used devices to complete online purchases. Google launched Accelerated Mobile Pages(AMP) for eCommerce sites. You can use AMP to speed up your website on mobile by adding the snippet to the website backend. It makes the pages faster and lighter to load in mobile browsers.  

If you have made your shop mobile friendly. Check whether your website is compatible with google standards. This can help with the mobile conversion rate of your eCommerce store. It is vital to make it responsive and mobile-friendly to personalize the consumer shopping experience. 

9. Resolve 404 Errors and Warnings

404 errors occur which you make changes to the permalink, remove the content form your website or incase on the incorrect link. To resolve this website on your website, you can use 301 redirects. Error 404 creates a negative impact on user experience. 

Having a consistent URL and implementing redirects on your website is one of the best practices, not losing your website visitor. Be aware of the warnings and fix them timely. You should permanently redirect the product pages. This will enhance the user experience of the website and help you retain the link equity.   

10. Diversify Payment Options

Accept as many payment options apart from Mastercard and Visa. Your customers can have any payment method, and it's better to prepare and deliver convenience. Ensure that your website can accept as many credit and debit cards as possible, as well as less conventional payment methods. 

Conclusion

In the end, conversions are all that matters. We believe you find this checklist informative and helpful in improving your eCommerce SEO. 

Having an eCommerce website may seem intimidating, but with the right strategies, best practices, and tips, you have higher chances to drive sales and build an engagement with your customers. You can gradually understand the needs of your target audience and prioritize the ones you think are essential to increase the conversion rate. 

If you have any queries on your eCommerce development plan, don't hesitate to leave a comment. We are happy to hear your concerns.