Opening an online store is not an automatic process to generate sales: it is necessary to invest in the SEO for e-commerce, if you want to actually 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 critical to effectively countering competitors.
While advertising on Google and Facebook is certainly useful, it cannot replace the importance of long-term SEO work.
Only this approach can establish brand authority and generate excellent conversions.
Are you thinking of starting an e-commerce business or already have one?
In this guide, we will outline the key elements of effective e-commerce SEO.
We will give you practical advice and targeted strategies to achieve tangible results.
SEO for e-commerce: everything you need to know
La SEO represents a key pillar in the expansion of an online business, essential for improving search engine visibility, increasing traffic and stimulating sales.
In the context of e-commerce then, this practice takes on an even more crucial role.
Much of the traffic to digital stores comes from organic searches, often surpassing even the contribution of social media or Google ads.
To effectively optimize your ecommerce business, the first step is to analyze your target market, study the competition and identify the predominant trends. Next, it is essential to identify the keywords most relevant to your industry and your own business, so as to capture the interest of your target audience and increase your chances of conversion.
Once you have identified strategic keywords, it is 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 then encompasses both "on-site" actions, those directly performed on your ecommerce site, affecting 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 needed to ensure proper indexing of content and prevent ranking problems.
What are the activities that on-site SEO includes?
On-site SEO, also referred to as on-page SEO, includes direct interventions on your e-commerce platform aimed at optimizing content for the keywords you have judged best to represent your business.
The identification of such keywords can be done through free platforms or paid professional tools, however the famous Ubersuggest o 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 should provide a clear and consistent 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 key role in attracting visits and gaining more trust from customers, while optimized reviews and images help improve online visibility. Internal links and rich snippets can further improve site navigation and visibility because they will allow your visitors to easily find what they are looking for.
In fact, to improve conversion, we suggest that you focus first on 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 better performance for your e-commerce ranking.
Off-site SEO, the activities needed to do it correctly
By the term off-site SEO we mean all the activities that are carried out outside of your ecommerce site, which are complementary to those that relate 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 relies on online reputation and visibility, both of which are critical along with on-site activities.
The first step for off-site SEO is to assess the authority of a domain, and a useful tool for doing this is the DA PA Checker. The DA is a score developed by MOZ that indicates the value of a website according to Google's logic. The higher the score, the higher the authority of the domain. If your ecommerce score is low, you may need to increase it with Digital PR activities, which require the assistance of an SEO expert to avoid mistakes that can compromise your online store's visibility.
Getting backlinks from authoritative sites may not be easy, if we consider that a good backlink should have a DA greater than 60. However, it is best to avoid including spam backlinks, as this strategy is certainly counterproductive.
Although social media activities and reviews do not directly affect search engine rankings, they can still help increase visits and improve online reputation.
Blogging is another important tool for improving your business' online reputation, but this requires a well-planned editorial strategy to ensure well-written articles from an SEO perspective and relevant content that can effectively convey the keywords to be placed.
The importance of technical SEO to make a difference
Technical SEO is a crucial aspect of your e-commerce success, with site performance playing a key role in determining its online visibility. Factors such as the loading speed of pages, and an easily navigable structure contribute significantly to its ranking.
In addition to speed, Google also considers site stability and ease of interaction as essential parameters for ranking. It is essential that an e-commerce site be mobile friendly and load quickly, especially considering the increasing use of mobile devices for browsing.
Tools such as. Gtmetrix e PageSpeed Insights allow you to get a complete overview of the state of site performance, and receive suggestions on aspects that need improvement.
Correcting any 404 errors and developing a well-structured sitemap are also equally important factors in improving your visitors' experience and allowing you to gain greater visibility in Google.
SEO for e-commerce: mistakes to avoid
To optimize your e-commerce and avoid running into the common mistakes, it is essential to first perform a thorough analysis to evaluate its performance.
The next step is to identify areas for improvement, and adopt an SEO strategy that can be inclusive of every aspect that affects the website, both On-site and Off-site. .
Take care when choosing page titles, headings, and product descriptions: all text should be carefully selected to reflect the content of the page and provide clear information to both users and search engines.
It is essential to choose truly strategic keywords that have a good volume of traffic and not too high competitiveness.
As digital agency in Milan, we often see sites that perform poorly on search engines, compared to expectations.
Their owners invested time and money in their optimization, but unfortunately made crucial mistakes.
A common mistake is underestimating the curation of product descriptions, such as simply copying text taken from other platforms, thus being penalized for inserting duplicate content.
Or, they have too many non-authoritative backlinks.
Just as often we see ecommerce that has poor navigability and poor display on mobile devices.
Also, make sure your site is secure and has a valid SSL certificate-this is critical to convey trust to visitors and protect their data during online transactions.
The importance of the right SEO strategy for e-commerce
As we have seen, creating and maintaining a successful e-commerce business requires several different skills.
However, by enlisting the help of an SEO agency that specializes in e-commerce, many of the difficulties can be nimbly overcome with a sound and effective strategy that includes everything we have outlined in this article.
At SHM Studio, we can offer you the support you need to optimize your online shop and make it truly functional, enabling you to increase sales and attract new customers.
If you are ready to get your business off the ground, contact us Now for a free consultation.
