SEO for ecommerce: a complete guide

Opening an online store is not an automatic process to generate sales: it is necessary to invest in E-commerce SEO , if you want to concretely grow your business.
In our experience as a Web Agency in Milan, we often see that many of our clients have neglected search engine optimization.
A step that is fundamental to effectively counter competitors.
Although advertising on Google and Facebook is certainly useful, it cannot replace the importance of long-term SEO work.
Only this approach is able to establish brand authority and generate great conversions.
Are you thinking of starting an e-commerce or do you already own one?
In this guide, we will outline the key elements of effective SEO for e-commerce.
We will give you practical advice and targeted strategies to obtain tangible results.

E-commerce SEO: everything you need to know

The SEO represents a fundamental pillar for the expansion of an online business, essential to improve visibility on search engines, increase traffic and stimulate sales.
In the context of e-commerce, this practice takes on an even more crucial role.
Much of the traffic to digital-format stores comes from organic searches, often even surpassing the contribution of social media or Google ads.
To effectively optimize your e-commerce, the first step is to analyze the target market, study the competition, and identify prevailing trends. Subsequently, it is essential to identify the keywords most relevant to your sector and your business, in order to capture the interest of the target audience and increase the chances of conversion.
Once strategic keywords are identified, it's important to optimize your website content, including product descriptions, videos, and images, as well as encourage customers to interact with your brand by leaving reviews.
These activities greatly improve the perception of your brand in the eyes of search engines.
SEO also includes both "on-site" actions, those directly carried out on your e-commerce, which concern its structure and content, and "off-site" actions such as link building.
Keep in mind also that it is important to pay attention to technical SEO, which deals with site performance and the interventions necessary to ensure correct content indexing and prevent ranking issues.

What are the activities included in on-site SEO?

On-site SEO, also defined as on-page SEO, includes direct interventions on your e-commerce platform, aimed at optimizing content for the keywords you have deemed best to represent your business.
The identification of such keywords can take place through free platforms or paid professional tools, however the famous Ubersuggest or Ahrefs .
During on-page optimization, it is crucial to include keywords in titles, product descriptions, and meta tags such as title and description.
Formatting elements such as H1, H2, H3 are equally important and must provide a clear and coherent structure to the content. It is essential to avoid excessive keyword density in texts, focusing instead on creating original, high-quality content.
In addition to content management, other critical aspects include site design, user experience, and multimedia optimization. The blog can play a fundamental role in attracting visits and gaining greater customer trust, while reviews and optimized images contribute to improving online visibility. Internal links and rich snippets can further enhance site navigation and visibility, as they will allow your visitors to easily find what they are looking for.
In fact, to improve conversion, we suggest you focus first and foremost on the user experience, taking into account metrics such as site security and usability.
Paying attention to these aspects will not only improve the overall UX of the site, but can also be reflected in a better performance for your e-commerce ranking.

Off-site SEO, the activities necessary to perform it correctly

By the term off-site SEO we mean all activities carried out outside your e-commerce, which are complementary to those referring to on-site SEO.
These include obtaining authoritative backlinks, interaction and mentions on social media, as well as reviews on external sites. These factors can influence Google in determining the best results to show users. Off-site SEO is based on online reputation and visibility, both fundamental along with on-site activities.
The first step for off-site SEO is to evaluate the authority of a domain, and a useful tool to do so is the DA PA Checker . DA is a score developed by MOZ that indicates the value of a website according to Google's logic. The higher the score, the greater the domain's authority. If your e-commerce score is low, you may need to increase it with Digital PR activities, which require the assistance of an SEO expert to avoid errors that can compromise the visibility of your online store.
Obtaining backlinks from authoritative sites may not be easy, considering that a good backlink should have a DA greater than 60. However, it is better to avoid including spam backlinks, because this strategy is certainly counterproductive.
Although social media activities and reviews do not directly influence search engine rankings, they can still contribute to increasing visits and improving online reputation.
The blog is another important tool for improving your business's online reputation, but this requires a well-planned editorial strategy to ensure well-written SEO-optimized articles and with relevant content, capable of effectively conveying the keywords to be positioned.

The importance of technical SEO to make a difference

Technical SEO is a crucial aspect for the success of your e-commerce, with site performance playing a fundamental role in determining its online visibility. Factors like the loading speed of the pages, and an easily navigable structure significantly contribute to its ranking.
In addition to speed, Google also considers site stability and ease of interaction as essential parameters for positioning. It is essential for an e-commerce site to be mobile-friendly and load quickly, especially considering the increasing use of mobile devices for browsing.
Tools like GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights allow you to obtain a complete overview of the site's performance status, and receive suggestions on aspects that need improvement.
Also, correcting any 404 errors and developing a well-structured sitemap are equally important factors to improve your visitors' experience and achieve greater visibility on Google.

E-commerce SEO: mistakes to avoid

To optimize your e-commerce and avoid making common mistakes, it is essential first of all to perform an in-depth analysis to evaluate its performance.
The next step is to identify areas for improvement and adopt a comprehensive SEO strategy that covers all aspects of the website, both On-site and Off-site.
Pay attention when choosing page titles, headings, and product descriptions: all texts must be carefully selected to reflect the page content and provide clear information to both users and search engines.
It is essential to choose truly strategic keywords that feature a good traffic volume and not too high competitiveness.
how digital agency in Milan , we often see sites that have poor results on search engines, compared to expectations.
Their owners have invested time and money in their optimization, but unfortunately they have made crucial mistakes.
A common mistake is underestimating the importance of product descriptions, for example, by limiting oneself to copying texts from other platforms, thus being penalized for duplicate content.
Or, they have too many low-authority backlinks.
Equally often we see e-commerce sites that have poor navigability and terrible display on mobile devices.
Furthermore, make sure that your site is secure and has a valid SSL certificate: this is fundamental to instill trust in visitors and protect their data during online transactions.

The importance of a right SEO strategy for e-commerce

As we have seen, creating and maintaining a successful e-commerce requires multiple different skills.
However, by enlisting the help of a specialized SEO agency in E-commerce , many difficulties can be easily overcome thanks to a solid and effective strategy, which includes everything we have illustrated in this article.
We at SHM Studio can offer you the necessary support to optimize your online shop and make it truly functional, allowing you to increase sales and attract new customers.
If you are ready to make your business take off, Contact us now for a free consultation.