Paid ads, social media, referrals, there are so many strategies your marketing team can take on to scale your e-commerce business. And while those routes can be effective in their own way, the success of your business also hinges on your SEO strategy. Implementing a plan to climb the search engine results page (SERP) is crucial for brand awareness, organic traffic, and more sustainable revenue for the future. 

Is SEO really that important for my e-commerce website?

The research says that people don’t scroll or click past the top 5 search results on Google or Bing. If shoppers are doing a branded search, they might go out of their way to find you, but in order to cast a wide net (aka the organic traffic) you need a great spot on the SERP. 

SEO is also important for your e-commerce store because it:

• Builds brand credibility. Users trust organic results more than sponsored results. 

• Allows you to reach potential new customers without the ad spend. 

• Gives you a competitive edge over others in your niche that aren’t SEO optimizing.

SEO for your website isn’t just a one-and-done fix. Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, and you need to understand best practices and how to pivot your strategy when needed. Here’s what you need to know when you’re just getting started.

Getting started with SEO for e-commerce: The four pillars

1. Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to how other websites and pages link back to your e-commerce store. These links, called backlinks, give your site more context in the sea of information on the internet. 

An off-page strategy is important because it raises your domain authority. This means search engines like Google and Bing start to trust your website as a credible resource, and they begin suggesting it more to people who search for relevant topics. Off-page strategies and backlinks help your website gain visibility and convert more. 

You can get started with an off-page strategy by:

• Building backlinks from credible, relevant sources: These votes of confidence from other websites could come from newspaper articles, influencer websites, or your manufacturer’s site. 

• Ramping collaboration: Inquire with other relevant sites for a guest blogger spot, participate in industry events, and reach out to popular influencers for collaborations.

• Explore affiliate marketing: Leverage your existing customer base or influencers who know your brand to start an affiliate partnership. Their sharing your links on their social media will slowly boost your backlink profile and off-page strategy. 

Don’t be afraid to start small with your off-page strategy. No collaborator or business is too insignificant to help you get links out there. Building your domain authority is a slow grind, but more than worth it in the long term. 

2. On-page SEO

On-page SEO is how the content on your e-commerce site is optimized for search engines and human traffic. This includes how your page navigation is laid out, your product titles, your meta tags, and more. 

One of the foundations of all SEO is keyword research. Consider which words or phrases are most closely related to your brand, and which search terms a new customer might use if they were to stumble across your website. For example, if your website sells different types of candles, then “wood wick candle,” “soy candle,” “scented candle,” and “candles near X” would be high-intent keywords. 

Once you’ve defined your keywords, list out your metadata and fold in the keywords where relevant. You’d be looking to audit your: 

• Product titles: Also called title tags or H1 tags, these titles live on your product pages and serve as the main indicator of what your content is to Google.

• Meta tags: This is an HTML element that provides more information to search engines about what that page contains. They’re not visible on the page itself, but are important for search engines to know when to suggest your website to users. 

• Meta descriptions: This is the preview blurb that comes up on the search results page under your title tag. It should be short, should describe what’s on the page, and should include your high-intent keywords.

To get a better idea of how to optimize this metadata, look at what your competitors are doing and how they’re describing their products. This makes a great starting point for standardizing your website going forward.

3. Content optimization

Search engines like Google use a proprietary automated system to rank search results, which prioritizes value-driven content made to help people. It can typically weed out the content that’s made purely to game the search engine system. So, as much as it seems like “the scenic route,” taking the time to build genuine, valuable content is going to be key for being rewarded by Google. 

So when you’re optimizing your content, think about what your visitors need. When you describe your products, build FAQ sections, and write blog posts, do it with a human voice and skip the AI. 

Google explained in a report that it rewards content with strong experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT) signals. Once an algorithm decides that your website is on target for a specific search, it will search for EEAT signals and rank or de-rank you accordingly. So make sure your content is truthful, accurate, and people-first.

4. Technical SEO

Lastly, we have technical SEO. When we say technical SEO, we’re referring to the backend structure of your website. Technical optimization ensures the search engines can index and crawl your site and understand your content and navigation. Search engines want to recommend websites that are trustworthy and have a great user experience, and technical SEO speaks to these elements. 

Here are some of the main elements of technical SEO to optimize: 

• Load times and mobile optimization: A great user experience means a website that loads quickly and is well-formatted for mobile devices. This creates a more seamless browsing experience that Google looks for and rewards. 

• Site crawlability and indexability: A well-structured website enhances the user experience but also makes indexing and crawling easier for search engine bots. Organize your category and product pages in a simple, sensical way with bread-crumbing and an XML sitemap. 

• SSL certificate integration: A trustworthy site is a secure site, and in e-commerce, it’s especially important. A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate protects customer data during transactions and shows customers and search engines that your website is legit. 

Technical SEO goes several layers deeper than those main points, but those are the key areas to focus on when getting started. Kick off with an audit of your website and determine which areas could be improved from a user-experience standpoint. The fix, then, likely involves technical optimization. 

Consult with the pros to get started on the right foot

Off-page, on-page, content, and technical SEO feel like a short checklist to build your SEO strategy. But it’s really a considerable investment of time and effort to get started and see results. The learning curve for implementing the right changes can be steep, so that’s why it’s a better use of labor and money to consult a professional team. 

At Placeholder SEO, we specialize in e-commerce SEO. We take the time to learn the ins and outs of your business, run a comprehensive audit, and work with you to develop an actionable strategy that gets results. Book a call today with the team to learn more about getting started with driving organic traffic and revenue.