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Academy
HOW TO WIN AT ECOMMERCE
A GUIDE TO ON-SITE OPTIMISATION
ECOMMERCE SEO
Who is this ebook for?It is intended for ecommerce marketers, Heads of Ecommerce or anyone
running an ecommerce store.
Why should you read it?This guide provides an introduction to on-site SEO, with tips and tricks
on structuring your store in the most SEO-friendly way so that you can
maximise your inbound organic traffic.
The All-In-One Ecommerce Intelligence Solution
Acquire and retain better customers. Sell them the right products.Maximise profitability.
LEARN MOREGET A DEMO
Customer AcquisitionDiscover what channels
acquire your best customers.
Browse AbandonmentConvert abandoning visitors
into customers.
Unified ReportingJoined up date for the entire
team, no more Excel.
Customer RetentionPersonalize your marketing
campaigns to increase repeat purchase rate.
Product RecommendationsUnderstand what products to promote
to improve overall profitability.
Conversion FunnelIdentify roadblocks along your
path to conversion.
About the author
Written by EDWARD GOTHAM
Ed manages client relations and consulting at
Ometria as the Head of Ecommerce. He delivers
results, utilising a data driven mindset, across
all areas of topics such as UI/UX optimisation.
Contents:
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15 KEY AREAS FOR OPTIMISATION
ON YOUR WEBSITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2. Page URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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8
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13
3. Page Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. Header Tags - H1/H2 Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Page Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Page Content/Body Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7. Image File Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8. Image Alt Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9. Responsive Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10. Internal Links/Anchor Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11. Rich Snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12. Page Load Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13. Eliminate Website Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14. Social Media Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15. Frequent New Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FINAL THOUGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Search engine optimisation should be a key area of focus for any
ecommerce store, primarily because it can be a very cheap and highly
valuable source of traffic. However, many stores still don’t understand
best practices and are implementing their strategy poorly (or not
at all). This guide is here to give you the lowdown on one of the major
aspects of SEO.
The position that your pages appear in search engine results is based on
the relevance of your page in relation to a particular search query. Search
engine algorithms determine page relevance by analysing two things:
Internal/On-page optimisation = UX + Page clarity
External/Off-page optimisation = Site and pagerank
This comprehensive ebook focuses on page clarity and user experience
(UX). Page clarity refers to how clear the focus of a page is to a search
engine and UX is what your visitors experience when using your website.
It’s all about making the content clear for both your users and search
engines. Together these two concepts encapsulate all the tactics you can
use to improve SEO by modifying your own page content (hence the term
INTRODUCTION
6Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
on-page SEO). The beauty of this is that it’s completely under your control
and, when you know what you’re doing, it’s very easy to implement.
In order to understand how search engines rankings work you first need
to fully understand their purpose. When someone submits a query on
a search engine, the search engine algorithms will analyse its detailed
database of web page information to identify the pages which are most
relevant to that particular query. The algorithms will use previously
gathered data acquired when crawling pages on the internet. During
these comprehensive crawls the search engine will determine, among
other things, what the page is for. What is the focus? It is therefore
incredibly important to make the focus of each one of your pages very
precise.
#1
7Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
To increase your search engine relevance and clarity you must optimise your
pages for specific keywords that define the focus of the page. This maximises
your search engine ranking potential for the keywords that are most valuable
to your target market and consequently your business. This will inevitably
increase revenues.
Below are 15 key areas of opportunity for optimising your website specifically
for ecommerce. When appropriate, I have provided examples of how to
implement the points for a fictional online store. My examples concentrate
on the pages where good search rankings deliver the best rewards. Typically
these are the home page, product listing page, product page and blog posts.
ON-SITE OPTIMISATION: 15 KEY AREAS OF OPPORTUNITY
1. Keywords
What are they?
In analytics, keywords are simply the individual words used to
perform a query on a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.
When keywords are grouped together, we refer to them as
key phrases.
8Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Why are they important?
Keywords are by far the most important initial step for search
engine optimisation. No matter how well you implement
everything else, obtaining optimal rankings on search engine
for queries most relevant to your business rests on choosing
the correct keywords and phrases. Their importance to
search engines is self explanatory; text is the primary source
of information that search engines are able to analyse when
they perform a crawl on a webpage. During this analysis
a search engine will try to locate the keywords in the text
that best explain the purpose of the page. It is therefore
imperative for you to first choose the correct keywords,
followed by maximising their importance and visibility to
search engines.
Choosing the right keywords is too large a topic to cover in
detail here, however, they should always be customer centric
and highly relevant to your business. Here are some key
points to keep in mind.
KEY POINTS:
One Focus
It’s best practice to focus on one topic in particular per page;
therefore you must assign one keyphrase that best describes
each page in order to maximise search engine relevance.
?
1. Keywords
9Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
I refer to this as the primary keyword. This keyword should
be used consistently across a page in areas such as the
title, header tags, URL etc. We’ll go into detail on keyword
positioning later on.
Unique Keywords
Your primary keyword should be unique for each page.
Secondary Keywords
Identify 2-3 additional keywords that are descriptive to the
primary keyword and therefore highly relevant to the pages
overall focus. These can be used strategically to differentiate
your pages from competitors and improve your traffic
potential.
Page Splitting
A common mistake is to have too many primary keywords on
one page that are equally vying for attention. If you are having
trouble identifying one primary keyword then you should
create a new page to separate the different themes.
Keyword Difficulty
Be aware of the challenges of ranking in the top spot for
1
2
1. Keywords
10Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
particular keywords. The more popular they are, the harder
it is to rank for them. This is why it is important to include
descriptive words that mean you can target slightly longer
tail keywords that are easier to rank for. If you maintain the
head term and build your site rank high enough you also
maintain the opportunity to rank in the top spots for the
harder keyword phrases. Aim for relevant keywords that have
the highest search volume and lowest difficulty (competition).
PAGE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES:
Home Page
Your brand name and what you do are the most important
keywords for this page.
Primary: Summer sun shop
Secondary: Womens Designer Dresses
Product Category Page
Always use the category name as the primary keyword for
a category page.
Primary: Sandals
Secondary: Durable, Cheap
1. Keywords
11Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Product Page
Always use the product name as the primary keyword for a
product.
Primary: Gladiator Sandals
Secondary: Size 9, brown
Blog
Don’t just use ‘blog‘, else you will only attract people searching
your brand name + blog. Make the focus of your blog about
something highly relevant to your target market. In my example
below, a summer clothing shop, I have chosen to focus on great
summer holidays. Summer clothing is highly related to summer
holidays, well placed CTAs are likely to perform well.
Primary: Blog
Secondary: Sun & Sea Holiday
Example: Sun & Sea Holiday Blog
Blog Post Page
Target keywords with the lowest competition and highest
search volume from your target market.
Primary: Summer Holidays
Secondary: Great Beaches
Example: Top 5 summer holidays with great beaches
1. Keywords
12Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
What is it?
URL stands for ‘uniform resource locator’ and acts as a
unique identifier or address for a particular web page so
people can locate and navigate to it easily. It’s very common
for people to type a URL directly into a browser search bar
for websites they know.
2. Page URL
13Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
KEY POINTS:
Domain Names
Domain names should include your brand name keyword(s).
A shop named Summer Sun should try and use the url
www.summersun.com. It is ok to use extra words but as a
minimum the brand name should be included in full.
Primary Keyword
URLs should include the primary keyword designated to that
specific page, this keyword should also appear as early as
possible whilst maintaining a consistent and user friendly
URL structure.
Concise
Be as short as possible, and don’t include any irrelevant
information. Yes, keywords are very important, but having too
many dilutes the relative importance of all of them.
URL Levels (/)
The aim is to create a flat architecture so use as few levels
as possible whilst maintaining a logical and consistent URL
structure. The deeper the page is in your URL structure
the less relevance it is to search engines. URL levels are
1
2. Page URL
14Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
commonly used in ecommerce to define categories and
subcategories among other things. Keep content that is very
important at the top of the URL structure.
A common tactic to promote particular products up the URL
structure is to make the pages for ‘What’s new’ and ‘Top
products’ accessible from your homepage because this can
improve the rank for the individual product pages that would
have been buried deep in your sites architecture.
Dashes ( -)
Each word in the URL should be separated by dashes. This is the
default word separator that is recognised by search engines.
Example:
www.summersun.com/blog/top-foods-for-healthy-living
PAGE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES:
Product Category Page:
http://www.brandname.com/category
http://www.mydog.com/food
Product Subcategory Page:
http://www.brandname.com/category-subcategory
2. Page URL
15Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
http://www.mydog.com/food-biscuits
This isn’t to everyone’s preference however I like to include
subcategories and category on the same url level in order to
create a flatter architecture.
Here’s a great example from nastygal -
http://www.nastygal.com/clothes-bottoms/
Product Page:
http://www.brandname.com/category-subcategory/
productname
http://www.mydog.com/food-dogs/large-dog-biscuits
Blog Post Page:
http://www.brandname.com/blog/blog title
http://www.musclefoods.com/blog/5-best-muscle-building-
foods
The blog title should be the same as the chosen title for the
blog post. Page titles are covered in the next section. Having
blog as level in the URL before your blog post title is a great
way to signal to search engines that this is a blog.
2. Page URL
16Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
3. Page Titles
What are they?
Page titles are created using <title> tags in a web pages
HTML. They appear on search engine result pages (SERP) as
an underlined heading which acts as a description and link
for that particular web page.
17Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Why are they important?
Page titles are one of the most pivotal aspects of on-page
SEO because of the importance all search engines put on
them, this makes sense because they are so prominent
on SERPs. Additionally a well structured title will also be
beneficial to your CTR on search results pages.
You have a bigger opportunity with a page title, in comparison
to a URL, to include a few more descriptive words about your
primary keyword. This is a great opportunity to include some
of your products’ USPs to differentiate against competitors.
KEY POINTS:
Keep it under 70 characters.
This is the maximum that is able to appear on Google’s
search results page, anything over this and the text will be
hidden. Utilise the 70 characters, but don’t waffle: be concise.
Must include the primary keyword.
Focus your content on one key phrase. Additionally this
should appear first, if possible, or very early on in the title.
?
3. Page Titles
18Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Brand Name
If you’re including the brand name it should go at the end,
not at the start. One exception is on the homepage where it
can be beneficial to have it at the front, especially if people
frequently search for your brand name. If you are running out
of characters I would remove your brand name from pages
such as a category or product page if you have some more
valuable keywords to replace it with.
Unique Titles
Page titles should be unique across your website. This is
incredibly important, as search engines dislike duplicate
content because it means they can’t differentiate between
pages.
Don’t keyword-stuff.
If you read the title to someone, you want them to be able to
tell you the main focus of the page. If you have many different
subjects fighting for attention it dramatically reduces your
titles clarity, don’t dilute relevance by trying to rank for too
many keywords. Have a maximum of 3 long-tail keywords.
3. Page Titles
19Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Readability
Make sure the title isn’t just a jumble of different words
that don’t read well together. This is poor UX and will be
penalised by search engines.
Vertical Bars/Hyphens
When separating content such as product name, categories,
brand name in meta titles try to use vertical bars or
hyphens. They are officially viewed as separators by search
engines.
PAGE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES:
Home Page
Summer Sun Shop | Womens Designer Dresses, Belts
& Shoes.
Use the home page title to explain what your business
sells in a very concise way. We recommended including a
few words that describe your business and it’s products in
more detail. In the example above the shop doesn’t just sell
dresses it sells ‘designer’ dresses.
Ecommerce is a highly competitive environment so make
sure you stand in comparison to your competitors.
3. Page Titles
20Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Category Page
Product Category | Brand Name
Handmade & Designer Flip flops | Summer Sun Shop
Utilise secondary keywords words to describe unique
aspects about your categories in more detail that your target
market may use when searching for products you sell. This
differentiation is essential to optimise your visibility online.
Product Page
Product Name/Brand | Product Category | Brand Name
Fatboi Flip flops - Red | Handmade & Designer Flip flops
Just like before, descriptive words are important. However first
you should focus on specific product attributes such as size, type,
colour, brand etc. Describe your products in as much detail as
possible to inform potential customers exactly what your product
is before they click through to your website. Use words that
pertain well to your product attributes, USPs and brand. Notice
in the example above I have removed the brand name because it
pushed the title over 70 characters.
Blog Page
Keep it simple but informative.
Sun & Sea Holiday Blog | Summer Sun Shop
3. Page Titles
21Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
4. Header Tags - H1/H2 Tags3. Page Titles
Blog Post Page
Blog post title | Blog Title
Top Ten Locations to Spend Your Summer Holiday | Sun & Sea
Holiday Blog
A blog post title should be exactly the same as the actual title
for your blog post that will appear as your blog post header.
Choosing blog titles deserves it’s own checklist however keep
this in mind - Focus on one keyword phrase and write about
something that your target market or a segment of your
target market is interested in and searching for.
What are they?
Heading tags are code used in a web page’s HTML to create
headings, and appear like this: <h1>HEADING HERE</h1>.
H1, H2 & H3 are the most commonly used heading tags.
Why are they important?
Header tags both inform search engines that a new section is
beginning and imply the focus of the content below it. Search
engines attribute significant importance to the H1 tag and steadily
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4. Header Tags - H1/H2 Tags
22Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
4. Header Tags - H1/H2 Tags
less importance to the H2, H3 tags and so on. H2 tags are very
useful as subheadings for text heavy pages such as blog posts.
KEY POINTS:
H1 Usage
Each page should have one and only one H1 heading tag.
It should incorporate the primary keyword for that page which will
also be present in your URL, page title etc. Keep the heading tag
very focused and as short as possible. Unless it is a blog post the
H1 text should be shorter than the page title.
H1 Positioning
The H1 tag should be at the top of the page or as close as possible.
H2 Usage
It is beneficial for each page to also include a couple of H2
headings underneath the H1 tag that incorporate the primary
target keyword or possibly some secondary keywords you wish to
rank for.
Unique H1
Google dislikes duplicate content because it makes pages harder
to tell apart, so keep the h1 heading unique for that page. What
23Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
5. Page Descriptions
What are they?
Page descriptions are commonly referred to as the ‘meta’
description and appear below your page title on SERPs. Meta
descriptions are added into your HTML using meta tags.
24Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Why are they important?
Their purpose is to describe the target page in more detail,
expanding on the information already included in the title
tag. They also contribute to your page clarity for search
engines in the same way as your page title. To maximise CTR,
page descriptions should provide a compelling reason why
someone should visit your page.
KEY POINTS:
Description Length
Keep the page description between 100 - 150 characters.
Longer than this and you risk having your information cut off,
any shorter and you will not be making full advantage of the
space given to you.
Primary Keyword
Incorporate the primary keyword into the copy in a natural
way. Once or twice will work perfectly.
Secondary Keywords
Use your description characters wisely to describe what your
product is for, the key benefits and USPs.
5. Page Descriptions
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1
2
25Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Avoid keyword stuffing.
Your text has to be comprehensible and flow well.
Unique Descriptions
Keep it original.
Product Page Descriptions
Make sure you don’t copy and paste manufacturer product
descriptions. It is highly likely this same content is being used
on many other sites and Google dislikes duplicate content.
The best option is to re-write them fully so they are completed
unique compared to everyone else, this way you can align the
content with your brand image as well improving customer
experience at the same time.
5. Page Descriptions
6. Page Content/Body Text
What is it?
The page body text is all the text that is actually visible
on your web page this is in contrast to page titles and
descriptions which are primarily only visible on SERPs.
When we discuss the body text we are primarily referring
to all the text present in paragraph tags throughout your
6. Page Content/Body Text
26Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
pages <p>PARAGRAPH HERE</p>. Optimising body text
is, in ecommerce, most relevant on your product and blog
pages. Typically there isn’t a significant amount of text on the
other pages.
KEY POINTS:
Keyword Usage
Use your primary keyword 2-5 times throughout the page’s
content depending on the length of the content. Additionally
use your secondary keywords when appropriate.
Keyword Placement
When writing content you should be aware of the benefit of
well positioned keywords however, remember to only mention
keywords naturally throughout your content. You can and will
get penalised if you use keywords unnaturally in your content.
Content Formatting
When appropriate make your primary keywords bold or
underlined. Try to do this at least once. It has a small
influence on the importance of that keyword to the search
engine.
6. Page Content/Body Text
27Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
7. Image File Name
Content Length
Good content length should be a minimum of 600 words per
page. Keep this in mind when writing blog posts.
7. Image File Name
6. Page Content/Body Text
What is it?
The image file name is the designated name that you give to
an image when you save it (image.jpg).
Why is it important?
Many people tend to forget about optimising their images but
it is important. Search engines can’t read images like they
read text and therefore the image file name is one of the only
things they can use to determine the context of the image.
KEY POINTS:
Text Formatting:
For optimal results each individual word should be separated
with dashes.
For example: fatflops-flipflops.jpg
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28Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
8. Image Alt Tags
Keep it simple:
Use the primary keyword for the page and keep it relevant.
On product pages use the most applicable product attribute,
such as brand, as well.
ALT
8. Image Alt Tags
7. Image File Name
What are they?
Alt tags refer to the alternative text you can assign to images.
Alt text is inputted in your HTML code in an image tag.
<img src=”image.jpg” alt=”image”>
Why are they important?
Search engines use them to help describe what the image,
currently search engine crawlers can’t read images without
any text. If the image identifiers are consistent with the rest
of the content on the page it will in turn increase your pages
clarity to search engines. Use this in combination with the
filename and keep them persistent.
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29Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
9. Responsive Design
KEY POINTS:
Alt Tag Text
The alt text should match the filename but without dashes.
For example: fatflops flipflops
9. Responsive Design
What is it?
Responsive design is a special coding method that enables
your website’s content to adapt to different screen sizes in
order to provide an enhanced user experience across all
devices.
Why is it important?
Google is beginning to penalise websites for unfriendly mobile
design due to the negative user experience it provides. It has
officially recommended using responsive design to improve
UX. This is due to the rapid worldwide growth of the mobile
internet.
8. Image Alt Tags
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30Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
What is it?
Internal links are links present on any page of your website
that link to other pages on your website, keeping the traffic
internal.
Why is it important?
Search engines are increasingly dishing out penalties for
over-optimised internal links. Therefore it is critical to be very
careful when creating the anchor text for internal links.
KEY POINTS:
Generic/Nature Keywords
These normally focus around terms such as you brand name
or even just ‘click here’. Also, don’t always link back to your
home page. This can look slightly suspicious.
Avoid exact match anchor text.
Google’s new update has started to penalise exact match
anchor text. This means that the anchor text matches the
page title of the page it is linking to.
10. Internal Links/Anchor Text
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31Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Prioritise link juice.
Every page does not have unlimited link juice. Distribute it
strategically to your most important pages such as certain popular
products you want to give more visibility. As mentioned previously
this is why a top products page placed on your homepage can
increase SEO ranking for particular pages or products.
Don’t go overboard.
Use your links frequently and only when it is natural to do so,
having too many can actually result in your site getting penalised.
Google’s algorithms are clever and if they think you are trying to
trick them it will reflect badly on your site. Always think about the
user experience first, if something is not logical don’t do it.
11. Rich Snippets
11. Rich Snippets
What are they?
Rich snippets are microdata you can add to your HTML
which enable you to apply more detailed information to your
search engine listings. In ecommerce this allows you to
add additional information on your products, such as user
reviews, images, price & stock availability. You can even
enhance your videos, if you have any.
10. Internal Links/Anchor Text
32Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Why is it important?
More detailed information means consumers can more easily
determine if you have the product they are looking for even
before they have clicked through to your website. Google
considers this an enhanced user experience and rewards it
with better ranking potential.
Key points:
Use best practices:
Follow Google’s step-by-step processes for adding rich
snippets.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/146750?hl=
en&topic=1088474&ctx=topic
12. Page Load Times
12. Page Load Times
What is it?
As it sounds, it is the time taken to load an individual
webpage.
11. Rich Snippets
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33Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Why is it important?
Poor load times mean a poor user experience and Google
wants its search engine to suggest websites that are
both highly relevant to a search and provide a great UX,
subsequently slow loading sites are penalised.
A great free tool to test the speed of your web pages is
pingdom.
KEY POINTS:
Maximum Load Time
Pages should load in 3s or less to provide a friendly UX and
avoid getting penalised.
Optimise images.
Images tend to be one of the main causes of slow load
speeds. Make sure images are loaded onto your server at
exactly the size you wish them to appear and no bigger.
Additionally if you have the expertise then you can host your
images on subdomains of your server which effectively tricks
the browser into giving you more bandwidth.
12. Page Load Times
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34Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
13. Eliminate Website Errors
?
Why is it important?
Search engines penalise websites for website errors due to
poor user experience. Any well-maintained website should
have no errors. Make sure you are signed up to webmaster
tools such as Bing and Google Webmaster Tools and check
them regularly, they will inform you if they have found any
errors. Some paid SEO tools, such as Screaming Frog, will
give you a more in depth insight into website errors.
KEY POINTS:
Helpful Tools
Register with Google and Bing webmaster tools to keep up to
date with any website errors their crawlers have found.
What are they?
Website errors are picked up by search engines when they
crawl websites and can vary from duplicate content in your
meta tags to page URLs that don’t have any content. They
cover all things that provide a bad user experience on your
website and other errors that make it difficult for the search
engines to define the content on your pages.
35Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Setup & submit sitemap.
This will ensure search engine crawlers find and structure all
your content correctly.
404 Error
Page doesn’t exist. You must redirect these to the correct
content.
301 Error
301 redirects should be changed to 302 redirects and these
should be used to tell search engines where new content can
be found if you have taken down an old page.
503 Error
Server is temporarily unavailable. Avoid this at all costs.
rel=”canonical”.
Use this to control duplicate content that may appear on
different product listing pages. Tell Google which one it
should prioritise in search and stop it penalising you for
duplicate content.
13. Eliminate Website Errors
36Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
14. Social Media Integration
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Why is it important?
Your social presence sends direct signals to search engines
about your site’s importance. The higher your engagement
and larger your audience the more valuable your site is to
more people; search engines are recognising this and are
subsequently rewarding websites that perform well socially.
KEY POINTS:
Create shareable content.
In order to spread content virally you need to create content that
resonates with your target market and is inherently shareable.
Blog posts, videos, infographics etc. are all great for this.
What is it?
Enable your audience to share your content on the web by
integrating social media sharing and following buttons onto
your website.
37Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
Company Follow Buttons
Develop your companies social presence by making it very
easy for people to follow you. Key places to take advantage of
this are on your homepage and blog sidebar.
Google+ Importance
As you might expect google puts more priority a on google+ in
comparison to other search engines so don’t leave it out and
keep your profile well maintained.
15. Frequent New Content
15. Frequent New Content
14. Social Media Integration
Why is it important?
Search engines like sites that are active, it shows regular
management and can convey high user engagement.
KEY POINTS:
User Generated Content
Allowing user to post reviews or photos of them using your
products provides a platform for your customers to add
new content to your site themselves. This also serves
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38Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
15. Frequent New Content
a dual purpose of providing social proof to your site whilst
encouraging frequent new content for SEO.
Blog
A blog is a great way to expand your visibility online whilst
maintaining a fresh and active online store which will reflect
positively on your search engine rankings.
39Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
FINAL THOUGHTSSTRAIGHT FROM THE BIG BOYS
THEMSELVES:{ GOOGLE’S BEST PRACTICES: }
In addition to optimising your on page content for search engine rankings
it is also very important to optimise for click throughs and revenue.
In order to do this you need to measure the engagement and conversion
statistics from various keywords from organic search. You should be
testing different titles, keywords, descriptions, product descriptions etc.
to find the content which, using attribution, performs the best.
Use an ecommerce analytics platform to track, visualise and analyse this
data so you can pull out this information from your store.
Make pages primarily for the users, not for search.
Avoid tricks to improve rankings (black hat).
“
Don’t deceive your users.
Think about what makes your website unique, valuable or
engaging.
“
Thanks for reading. If you’re looking for more information about how to win at ecommerce check out the academy area for more helpful videos, ebooks, templates and more.
www.ometria.com/academy
40Ecommerce SEO: A Guide To On-Site Optimisation
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