When looking for a service or product, search engines are the go-to place. That is why e-commerce SEO is so important. Ask yourself these two questions: When you are searching, which results are you more likely to click on? How often are you looking past the top three results? Long Island, New York area business owners should be concerned about elevating website rankings.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the term used to describe the tactical and strategic effort to maximize a website’s placement in search engine results.

On-page HTML structure, keyword usage, website architecture, page content, inbound links and domain collective content make up just a fraction of the criteria used in assessing who is going to be prized with that sought after higher ranking.

Due to online consumer behavior, ranking higher than your competitors has never been so important. But ranking on the first page of results is not enough anymore. Your goal should be to land in the top three.

Why is Ecommerce SEO Important?

The success of e-commerce websites is relying on SEO now more than any other platform when you want to acquire unpaid, organic traffic to convert into online sales. A recent study shows that SEO is accountable for about 30% of E-commerce sites traffic, which is a substantial figure when put into the context of potential revenue opportunities. There is no question that lower ranked websites will be missing out on this potential revenue so it is vital that your site is SEO friendly.

However, due to their high page volume, pages with low count content, and duplicate content, e-commerce websites run the risk of being classified as spam by search engine algorithms. Search engines are clever, but not perfect, and in order to not damage your ranking your store’s exposure and ultimately your sales, your site needs to be SEO friendly.

Few people have a full understanding of the importance of e-commerce SEO and how quickly it has developed. SEO is now much more than just including the right keywords on a page – it touches on EVERY part of a website, so let me give you a brief rundown of the process.

Search Engines & Ranking

When a user goes on a search engine like Google, enters a query in the search bar and clicks enter, the search engine implements bots, generally called “spiders” that crawl websites and index their content.

If an important part of your website isn’t easily accessible, spiders will perceive it as unimportant and rush off to other sites.

Therefore, a good website architecture is a critical component of SEO as it lays the path for search engines to consider your content as relevant to that original organic search.

Once the bots have scanned their index and compiled results, search algorithms determine the order in which the results will be displayed. Google, for example, uses over 200 signals to determine how each website ranks against one another.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO is comprised of keywords strategically placed within the page to convey the purpose of that specific page to the search engine. Using alternatives around the main keyword is important. For example, a page about local Asian food could include “local Asian restaurants” or “local Asian cuisine”.

Title and header tags are HTML components describing the content of the page, and they are important elements to consider for your on-page SEO. While the title tag appears on the search engine result page and the browser tab, both tags should include the primary keyword (and) the brand name.

As spiders will also be crawling through the main body of content, include variations of the main keywords, but don’t try and force them in for the sake of it. Make sure you are using natural language, and limit acronyms, so that you provide an easier user experience.

Websites are fluid and Google likes to keep us on guard with new releases, so if you’re in need of website design, and you want to create an SEO-friendly site, Web Rocket Media’s experts can guide you through the ever changing process. Give us a call!