SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, we have all heard the term thrown around. In 2022, SEO for E-commerce is more important than ever. Have SEO tactics changed in 2022? What does this mean for E-commerce sites?
Why SEO for E-commerce is important?
SEO is often one of the most overlooked or poorly implemented strategies to improve conversion rates and sales.
With Covid 19 here to stay for the foreseeable future, more and more businesses are moving to online platforms. Paired with the fact that in 2020, E-commerce sites generated approximately 4.2 trillion dollars in revenue across the world.
Despite this, many e-commerce businesses are over-reliant on paid advertising to generate sales – meaning that if you have to turn your ads off for any reason your sales tank dramatically. This can quickly get out of hand if you find yourself in a situation where you’re not bringing in enough revenue to run ads – but you need ads to bring in revenue.
Not to mention that, according to some studies, 53% of all web traffic originates from organic search – as opposed to only 27% from paid ads!
Who wouldn’t want a piece of that pie? 2022 is the time to get SEO and digital marketing right.
Here are our top tips and tactics to help your E-Commerce business in 2022
Top 5 Strategies for SEO for E-commerce sites in 2022
1. Use Transactional and Commercial Keywords
Google and other search engines search your page or site for keywords that help it identify what your potential customers may be searching for. It is important to take that in:
Google looks for keywords your potential customers are searching for.
Search intent is a key factor in this process. Using keywords that indicate your potential customer’s intent (in this case to make a purchase) it helps Google list your page in the relevant search results. By using keywords that are transactional such as “for sale”, it shows Google that you are offering a good or service that it can match to a customer who is looking to make a purchase rather than those that are still in the research phase of a purchase.
Commercial keywords are another great area to focus on – keywords related to consumers investigating products or brands before committing to a purchase. For example, “furniture companies in Johannesburg” or “Best couches under R50 000”.
2. Optimise your Product Category Pages and Product pages
Think of your Product Category pages as the aisle in a shop, you are not going to look for shoes in the meat section. This applies to your website too. By clearly defining your product category, while using carefully selected keywords that are specific to the category and descriptive of the products your potential customers are likely to find in that category allows you to cast your net to a wider audience.
Furthermore, by ensuring that your product pages are descriptive, detailed and different to your competitors you give Google more content to search through. Pages that have content that is too vague, “thin” or similar to other pages are less likely to be listed in search results.
Additionally it is important to remember that an online user cannot touch, taste, smell, feel or try out your product. When you include a comprehensive product description on your product page can help sway your potential customers to make a purchase. It also adds great content to your page.
3. Implement Schema Markup
Similar to a product description, schema markup can help Google index your site correctly. Schema markup or product schema lists the specific details related to your product. Which is a great way to improve SEO for E-commerce websites.
Generally a product’s schema includes the product name, a detailed description, product price, availability and product ratings.
All of these things help your SEO because the more clear and descriptive your product page is, the easier it will be for Google to find it.
4. Include Social Proof – Testimonials and Reviews
Word-of-mouth marketing has always been one of the best forms of marketing out there. Often hearing, or reading what others have to say about the product or service helps build trust between your company and your potential customers.
In terms of SEO, testimonials and reviews are gold. By including testimonials and reviews you ensure that the content on your page is different from your competitors or even other variations of your own product pages.
5. Get rid of Duplicate Pages and Content
Duplicate pages and duplicate content are both a big no-no when it comes to SEO. Pages with minor variations in content such as colour, or size, but that are essentially the same impacts Google’s ability to index the correct page. A simple way to fix this is by using canonical links to direct Google’s crawlers to the correct or original source of the content.
An extra tip: Optimise User Experience to help optimise SEO
A vast majority of E-commerce purchases take place on mobile devices. Ensure that your site is easy to use from both a computer and mobile device. This is important not only for user experience but SEO also. Furthermore ensuring your site speed is up to scratch helps Google list your page. Page speed helps search engines view i as reliable and easy to use, therefore lists it higher than pages that are slow and badly designed.
Conclusion
SEO is more important than ever before. More and more businesses are venturing into online sales and e-commerce. Optimising your website can mean the difference between your business making a sale, or your competitors.
It is important to make sure that you are using all the SEO tools and techniques you can to increase your ranking. By making use of carefully selected keywords, clearly defining your product categories and listings, you can increase your traffic and sales. Additionally, by building trust with your potential customers through reviews and testimonials, not only are you able to differentiate your content to avoid duplicate pages and content, you are also more likely to make the sale.
If you enjoyed this article or found it helpful, check out more e-commerce marketing content on the inSyte blog or listen to the inSyte Podcast.
This article was brought to you by Syte.
We’re a specialist e-commerce and lead generation digital marketing agency dedicated to driving up your bottom line.
If you need any help running your business’ digital marketing strategy, feel free to reach out with the form below or check out our case studies page to see what we’ve been able to do for our clients.
