If you are struggling with the big G or failing to convert visitors, you may need to re-evaluate your ecommerce website and take steps to optimise your site content. Here are 25 tips on how you can optimise your ecommerce website for SEO and customer conversions:
- Optimise for mobile. Mobile shoppers are more and more common – make sure you site is mobile optimised!
- Keyword Research. Target relevant, high search volume, low competition keywords
- Competitor Research. Learn who your competitors are, what keyowrds they target, how they rank and how you can differentiate yourself
- Remove site errors. Use a tool like Screaming Frog to check for errors like 302, 404, duplicate content and more
- Optimise page speed. Use a tool like pingdom to check how you can improve load times.
- Focus on longtail keywords. Ranking for “handbag” is near impossible but ranking for “small brown leather handbag” is within reach. You should consider long tail keywords when writing your titles, descriptions, images and alt tags.
- Site Structure. Focus on creating a “flat architecture” for your website, meaning design that requires as few clicks as possible to go from your home page to your product page and use your keyword research to design the layout.
There also are other in-depth information architecture guides that can be found here, here and here. - Add interactivity. Examples of interactive elements could be drop down options, quizzes, polls, user controlled visuals or social sharing. Basically, anything that moves the visitor from being a passive viewer into an active participant will help conversions.
- Online Chat. Creating a live chat panel can please your visitors and create trust. Olark have a free solution which does a great job.
- User generated content. UGC can come in many forms but an example would be reviews or testimonials. Content generated by a user can easily persuade a visitor to purchase a product. Amazon use this to great effect. If you find customers are not leaving reviews, offer incentives such as a discount on their next order if they leave a review.
- High quality images. Don’t you just hate it when you go for a closer look only to be presented with the same size image in a lightbox? Using large images will stop me tutting! If you want to get creative with images – you can go for 360 degree images to really make your photos stand out and add interactivity at the same time.
- Videos. If a picture is worth a thousand words – what is a video worth? Adding product videos can really show off your product and is proven to help conversions
- Add schema or Rich snippets. Help google help you. If you don’t add markup to your products, it will really have a negative effect on your search rankings.
- Optimise your checkout. Make it as simple as possible for a customer to purchase. Remove any unnecessary fields and steps involved (such as removing the need to registration before purchase or creating a one page checkout)
- Use exit intent popovers. If your customers are leaving, make them think again with an incentive such as a money off voucher.
- Create email marketing campaigns. Your customers should not be ignored as they are proven buyers! Tell your customers about new products and special offers to keep you at the top of their mind.
- Wishlists. Allow customers to create wishlists & share them with their friends. You can also drive them back by sending emails to users when wishlist items are nearly out of stock.
- Back in stock notifications. If a product is out of stock, allow your customers to request notification when back in stock. Chances are they will purchase when the item is back!
- Create upsells. Want fries with that? If a customer buys a laptop – they may also want a laptop bag. Maximise profits by offering customised recommendations based on what customers put in their bag.
- Frequently Bought Together. Amazon use this feature on every product page – you should do the same!
- Customers also viewed. Similar items on the product page can help with cross sales.
- Social media Integration. An e-commerce site wouldn’t be complete without social media! Social media signals (growing your community, engaging with customers, and sharing content)impact your SEO. Having a lot of social signals tells Google that people find your website and brand valuable.
- Add blog content. Since each page of your site should be optimized for only one keyword, there will be plenty of important keywords that don’t make it onto a page of your site. The way to rank for those keywords is through a blog. With a blog, you can optimize each post for a keyword that you aren’t targeting with the main pages of your site.
- Link Building. We could write a whole book on this topic but you will want to concentrate on earning quality inbound links, when it comes to link building.
- Local SEO. If you are reliant on local trade, it’s important to get your name, address and phone number (NAP) on your website and spread citation elsewhere. Moz offer a great free tool which will help you do just that here.
When you have optimised your site for seo and usability, you will see an increase in quality traffic, which will lead to more conversions and repeat visitors. Further reading here and here.
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25 Tips to Optimize your Ecommerce Website
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