Attracting people to your e-commerce site is something you should consider long before you start building it out.
There are 3 key ways to go about this;
- Paid advertising
- Content marketing
- Social media
All are worthwhile and each should be addressed in its own fashion.
However, the foundation of your marketing efforts should be search engine optimization (SEO).
While it takes the longest to build up and produce consistent results, it’s also the method with the greatest longevity.
So, let’s review some SEO steps to take before launching your e-commerce site.
6 SEO Tips For Launching An E-commerce Site
1. Use A Mobile Friendly Theme
Google recently declared a site’s mobile suitability, as well as its loading speed to be key ranking factors. Google’s Page Speed Insights will help you find bottlenecks in your online store and eliminate them.
Better platform providers, such as Shopify, offer templates based upon responsive design, so your site will automatically display naturally on mobile devices if you use one of them.
With that said, you’ll want to test it on as many different phones and ipads as possible, as well as with all of the leading operating systems to be certain it looks good.
Example below made with Shopify: the mobile version of LadyBossBloggerShop.com.
2. Utilize Google’s Free Tools
The 2 key applications you need to build into your store are:
Analytics will help you:
- Track the number of people who visit your site
- Learn how they found you
- See what they did while they were there
If you built your site using a leading platform like Shopify’s websites, a sitemap file was created automatically. Submitting it through Search Console will help Google index your store.
Search Console will help you:
- Alert you to crawling errors
- Help you troubleshoot issues
3. Find Relevant Keywords
Google’s Keyword Planner will help you determine the search volume of keywords relevant to your business, which you can then map to your content. Keyword research can also help you determine the nature of the pages you should have.
You can focus them around words people use when researching, as well the ones typically leading to sales. This will help you optimize your product descriptions.
4. Optimize Your Pages
PAGE TITLE
- The page title should succinctly describe the content of the page.
- H1 Tags should be limited to one per page.
- Only use primary relevant keywords in your title.
- 60 characters or less to avoid truncation in search engine results.
META DESCRIPTIONS
- Meta descriptions should come in under 155 words and have some snap to them.
- Lead them with your strongest copy and include a keyword.
- You want it to intrigue the user and include essential keywords.
PAGE IMAGES
- Images should all have descriptive alt tags and file names, so a description of the picture will be there if they don’t come up.
- Images should also be compressed so they load as quickly as possible.
PAGE URL
- In most cases, your page title will become part of the URL, so keep that in mind when you’re composing them.
- You want short and to the point URLs.
Click the image below to check out the blog post on LadyBossBloggerShop.com below.
5. Build Links To Your Site
One of the criteria by which Google ranks sites is the quantity, value, and applicability of links to your pages from other sites (AKA inbound links). This makes your site seem trustworthy to Google.
Getting these can be time-consuming, however like anything else, it’s best tackled in bite-sized chunks according to a specific plan.
EFFECTIVE LINK BUILDING STRATEGIES
- Form partnerships with bloggers who cover your market/niche.
- Research what your competitors are doing to see if it will work for you too.
- Cultivate relationships with members of the formal press who cover the same topics.
6. Create Quality Content
BLOG POSTS
Produce content that would add value to your site by providing supporting information around using your products through blogging. Blog posts or the copy on your information pages should run less than 500 words.
The quality far outweighs quantity in this regard. And, while those canned descriptions provided by product manufacturers are handy, eschew them in favor of original copy.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Try to anticipate questions your customers might have and create a FAQ page to answer them all.
REVIEWS
Most shoppers are going to look for product reviews before they buy, so provide those on your product pages.
STAY INFORMED
These are the basic SEO steps to take before launching your e-commerce site. Keep in mind though; search engine optimization is a continually evolving organism, as well as a constantly moving target.
Plan to read up on it monthly to keep abreast of developments and changes resulting from them.
Manazir Hussain says
Such a great article I have ever seen. Everyone should follow your thoughts. I really appreciate it.
Brian McQueen says
Thanks for this seo info.
Melissa Carl says
Thank you so much for sharing a great article. Keep up the great work!
Sabrina Addams says
My best friend is wanting to launch her handmade jewelry business in March, just in time for spring, and is needing some help with marketing her website. I think she’d love to know that blog posts can support your products, and using a strong page title and one h1 tag per page is good for SEO. Great blog advice!
Saul Dubai says
This blog information is very informative. Also I have 2 ecommerce sites and by depending some of my tricks I got the rank. My suggestion is that you must do one thing just get knowledge from UAE sites, which are good for getting about it properly.
Tom Pham says
Interesting post and very informative. Yes, it is not possible to rank number #1 within six months with white HAT SEO activities. SEO is a long-term resulting technique. Using the right techniques will take time but will deliver quality results that last long.
Evenett Digg says
Interesting blog!