Getting
people - and search engines - to take notice of your
online
store
is quite a challenge, especially if SEO is not your first language.
But
it's not as daunting as you may think, take a look at this blog for 5
simple techniques that you can use to fire your store up the
rankings....
1.
Create unique content
Unless
you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years, you'll know
that content is king. Ecommerce pros don't just create content
because it's the 'in' thing to do, they create it because it's proven
to drive more traffic and improve SEO.
The
simple science behind is that Google likes to see new content
regularly, it helps to drive more links to your store, and can set
you apart as a leader in the product you sell.
But
if you're struggling to see these awesome results then it can be
frustrating...
Put
it in action:
Content
can be great, so long as you have the right strategy. Your first step
should be to put together a content plan that outlines your goals so
that you know how to measure your campaigns.
Next,
you need to consider the type of content you want to create,
depending on who you are targeting. Sure, you'll have your overall
target audience, but it's important to create content that targets
people at different stages of the sales funnel.
For
example, blog posts or infographics are highly shareable and great
for those customers who don't know who you are yet. Where-as an
e-book is an educational piece and is ideal for encouraging lead
generation.
It's
a methodology that takes time and effort, but so long as you follow
these steps and create valuable unique content then it will help to
improve the visibility of your store.
2.
Build authoritative links
Unfortunately
link building has a bad rep because a few people tried to ruin it for
the rest of us and spam the web with bad links. But we're not
interested in spamming people, we're interested in gaining
authoritative links – and you should be too.
When
we say 'authoritative' what we mean is basically gaining links from
high value, well established sites. The problem is, it's easy to link
to these sites, but how do you get these authoritative sites to link
to you?
Put
it in action:
So
it involves a combination of content creation and outreach...
Let's
say you create a blog post that you want people to link back to.
First step is you need to come up with an idea that loads of people
will like. And to do this, you need to adopt the '
Skyscraper
Technique
'
– made popular by Brian
Dean.
The
idea is basically you go and find a popular blog post that a lot of
people have linked to and shared. You can check out tools such as
BuzzSumo
to find the most popular content in your niche. Next, you take that
awesome content and you make it better, by putting your own view
point on it.
Once
you've started to create unique content that adds value, you then
need to outreach it to people who own well-established sites and ask
them to link to your post.
By
building relationships with thought leaders and sending them content
that backs up what they stand for, you'll be able to encourage
authoritative links to your online store.
3.
Encourage product reviews
Did
you know that
20%
of online stores see an increase of click-throughs by featuring
product reviews? The great thing about a review is that not only does
it encourage other customers to buy your products, but it also
provides new content on your page.
And,
when a customer searches for your product in Google, it's not
uncommon for them to search for reviews as well. That's why it's so
valuable for you to feature them because it terms of SEO, it can help
you move up the rankings.
Put
it in action:
What
you need to do is encourage people to leave product reviews. The aim
is of course to make sure the reviews people leave are all positive,
but don't be disheartened if you do get some bad reviews. This only
gives you a chance to improve your customer service.
Related
reading: Check out our previous post '
How
to encourage, reward and showcase user reviews
'
for more help on this topic!
4.
Optimize every page
Yes
it's true, every page on your website should be fully optimized to
ensure that have the best SEO techniques in place even if pages are all similar like this
casino night event planner. Whether it's
keywords for your product descriptions, tagging your product images
or personalizing your page titles, everything needs to be considered
so that you can set your store up for success!
Put
it in action:
What
you need to do is get your meta data in order across your whole site.
It's important to optimize meta titles and descriptions because this
is the snippet that shows up on the search engines.
For
example if you wanted to optimize a product page, use relevant
keywords within
the meta title and description, as
this provides clarity to the reader as well as impacts your SEO.
You
should also create unique product descriptions. Even if your
eCommerce website sells products that are not unique, it is very
important to ensure you are writing unique and compelling
descriptions for your products.
Not
only will this help your SEO efforts, but by creating content that
answers questions that customers might ask, you are creating product
pages that are more likely to convert sales.
It's
also important to tag the images on your website as this will help
search engines understand what
your images are about. Be sure to use relevant keywords to tag your
images, but do not stuff alt tags or image titles with lengthy
keyphrases, as this is still considered a spammy technique.
When
optimizing your website, make sure you do
plenty of
keyword research to find out what your customers are searching for,
so you can improve your SEO and your conversion rate!
5.
Measure and Analyze
The
last technique we'd suggest is to use analytics so you can gain real
insights into what is working on your website and what isn’t. A
good analytics tool will give you a breakdown of activity including
who is visiting your site, the pages they are landing on, the amount
of organic traffic you receive, and the impact of your marketing
campaigns.
Once
you have this data in hand, you can then seek to improve your store
for the better. You can tweak your landing pages, start creating
content that is targeted to the right audience – and run better
campaigns.
Put
it in action:
Choose
your analytics platform that works for your store. It really depends
on what is most important for you, so you could use Google Analytics,
but it's not the only option out there...
For
example, KISSmetrics is heavily focused on targeting your audience,
where-as Mint lets you identify the exact page on your site that
generates the most interest. Shop around for the right tool for you
and use it to improve the SEO across your entire store.
You
can also run small Google adwords campaigns to test keywords to find
out which keywords convert best on the 1
st
page of Google paid results. The results will help you to determine
which keywords might convert best in organic results as well. This
information can save you from making mistakes in the direction of
your SEO when you start working on optimizing your website.
Closing
thoughts
As
you can see, there is a lot to take into account when improving the
SEO on your online store! These are just a few of the techniques that
can really help, so put them into practice - and keep tuning into our
blog to find out more!
Are
you looking for an Ecommerce
solution?
Then speak to us today and find out more about our
pro-grade ecommerce tools!