eCommerce SEO: Increase Traffic to Your Online Store

Since March 2020, there has been an overall increase in online purchases worldwide, according to a survey done by UNCTAD. This indicates the essence of eCommerce SEO and reflects that more people are converting to digital routes to make purchases.

Whether you’re a small online business owner trying to grow your business or a growth marketer looking for effective ways to increase traffic, this article is just for you.

7 potential ways to attract massive traffic to your online store.

1. EFFECTIVE WEBSITE STRUCTURE

Your website’s structure can make a lot of difference in the conversion rate of the traffic it garners. A confusing website structure can essentially result in a high bounce rate as people will lose their way and look for an alternative.

It is also essential that you make the website responsive to adapt to any device. According to a report by Quoracreative, over 3/4th of customers use cellular devices along with offline shopping. Thus, optimizing your website structure for mobile phones can bring a large amount of traffic to your online store.

There is obviously a reason why Myntra, Flipkart, etc., are where they are. One of the reasons is the use of eCommerce breadcrumbs that improve both structure and internal linking.

SEO for eCommerce websites starts with putting them on HTTPS as it keeps the details of your customers safe, increasing the website’s trustworthiness. It also helps your website rank higher on the SERP due to the SSL certification.

Also, offer correctly listed categories, ensuring a more user-friendly website experience.

Lastly, include social media integrations so that your customers can share the products via other platforms.

This also brings us to the next eCommerce SEO tactic, as discussed below.

2. ENCOURAGING REFERRAL MARKETING

Nearly 92% of customers trust referrals from the people they know, as of 2021. You can leverage this by focusing on referral marketing for your business.

You do not have to create a detailed program; only a streamlined way of coming across product reviews and recommendations will do. Many companies also use a reward system to make their existing customers refer the site to their friends and family.

Annex Cloud states that only 1/3rd of people believe in advertisements. Thus, it is better to use those advertising funds to offer an added discount if your customers successfully bring in another customer. It is also beneficial as referred customers tend to have 16% higher lifetime value than their non-referred counterparts.

Almost every online business uses this technique to bring new customers in and expand their reach. They use phrases like “invite a friend” and attach a substantial reward along with it to compel customers to go for it. This works wonders on Gen Z as a friend’s recommendation is the most effective influence on their purchasing habits.

This especially takes place through mobile applications as they have all the social media integrations, which make the process so smooth that individuals do not even feel as if it is a hassle. Furthermore, 43% of people are more likely to purchase if their friends or family share a product on social media.

3. OPTIMIZED PRODUCT PAGES

Optimizing every individual page will ensure that even single product pages are ranking high. This particular technique of SEO for eCommerce requires extensive research that is beyond just keywords.

You need to understand your competitors’ website visuals, and navigating experience to both understand what is popular and what you need to avoid. Create a seamless customer experience by using a customer’s perspective and portraying the buyer persona.

From the product title to the pictures, everything should be optimized. It needs to be unique, making it stand out among the rest of the eCommerce websites.

According to a One Space report, 98% of online shoppers did not complete their purchase due to incomplete product descriptions. However, complete details can also cause a negative effect if it is too complicated for the customers to comprehend.

Avoid jargon and use simple sentences to explain the features and benefits of your product. For example:

This particular lip product from the brand Miss Rose has a detailed product description. However, it is not convenient for one to waste time reading such a long paragraph. In contrary,

This Grey on Matter lip product has a shorter but more comprehensible description. If we look from another angle, the previous product included a gallery of all the shades it offered, which the latter lacked.

This shows the importance of research as you can understand that both these listings have something beneficial and something missing. A proper eCommerce SEO approach would include both visuals and content, adding to its uniqueness.

4. VOICE SEARCH OPTIMIZATION

With Alexa, Google, and Siri making almost every household their home, they must know your business. It is estimated that by 2022, almost 55% of US residents will have a smart speaker like Google Nest in their houses. The rest of the world will also not lag, making voice search optimization essential for every online business.

Use keywords like “near me” for local voice SEO for eCommerce and phrases like “best + your product or service + a dedicated group or place” for general optimization.

Include a question-answer section in your product or service pages apart from your website’s dedicated FAQ page. Google’s Search Console is a great place to search for the types of questions that would be most beneficial for your website’s visibility.

However, with the development of technology, SEO for eCommerce is no longer limited to just written or voice search.

5. OPTIMIZATION FOR IMAGE SEARCH

Google Lens, introduced in 2017, incorporates machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide relevant results against a visual search query. A 2018 survey by Gartner predicted that by 2021, a business that modified its website for visual and voice search would increase revenue by 30%.

This statement’s credibility can be verified by how platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have emerged as some of the best media for business promotion. As of 2019, more than 60% of millennials desire and prefer to search through visual aspects.

Use this to your benefit by submitting images on the sitemap, posting on social platforms like Pinterest, and building an image search in the website’s inventory. You can also generate organic image search results using essential eCommerce SEO techniques like schema markup and metadata.

6. INFLUENCE AND UPSELL

What most dominant eCommerce sites use but smaller sites tend to ignore is “upselling“. You can learn the art of upselling from the master Amazon itself. The company gained about 35% growth in its sales the first year it tried to use this technique.

This is a kind of recommendation, but here, the website shows products that are often bought together or are supposed to be purchased at the same time.

While the primary product would have only drawn a sale of about Rs. 325, this entire clubbed purchase will help Amazon gain more than double the sales.

However, this is not the only tactic of SEO for eCommerce that can influence its customers. Shopping sites also use a section called “similar products” to keep the customers engaged and eventually make their purchases.

Usually, these two are put one after another to increase the chances of conversion even more.

7. LIST YOUR ONLINE STORE

Every eCommerce business should create social media accounts to improve its visibility and open more opportunities for promotion.

Along with social media accounts, you must register your business on different directories as well. Registering on Google My Business will also improve your credibility for Google SERP.

While promoting your business, talk more about the benefits instead of the features. This helps consumers build trust in your product as they directly get to know how it will improve their lives. Provide appropriate links so that they can directly land on the product page without any distractions.

Instagram has over 1 billion daily users, and according to Sproutsocial, the average CTR for social media ads was about 1.3% in mid-2020. Even such a small percentage of 1 billion is a substantial number of potential customers, and this is only one platform.

This statistic shows how advantageous social media eCommerce SEO is for businesses. This is just a fragment of what proper optimization can do for an online business if applied and updated with the changing trends.

You can also consider making the checkout process as smooth as possible, incorporating demo videos, and using dynamic meta descriptions.

Remember, the more unique your website is, the more likely it is that customers will come back a second time. You can achieve this by implementing these 7 pointers and conducting a regular check on your website.

CONCLUSION

SEO for eCommerce is nothing but creating a space for your customers that they enjoy browsing through; the buying part will happen eventually.

“My rule of thumb is to build a site for a user, not a spider.“

Generating leads and improved sales is more important than ranking at the top. Even Google has stated in its Webmaster Guideline to pay more attention to user experience, instead of pleasing its crawlers.

What do you think? Drop a line in the comments section below.