16 Ethical Ways to Maximize eCommerce Organic Search Traffic

Entrepreneurs who run e-commerce sites face a great challenge when it comes to increasing organic traffic to their online store using strategic SEO tactics. Initially, search engine optimization may seem plain, good and easy. But in reality, there are thousands of interconnecting things that need to be observed and handled in order to see concrete results.

Sometimes, search engine traffic can turn out to be the real reason for the success and failure of many e-commerce sites. Since it is free traffic, there would not be a single business owner who doesn't want to capture those top rankings. Several billionaires tasted success in the e-commerce world because of their capability to optimize for product-related search terms in popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

The organic SEO process is a bit more complicated, especially for e-commerce sites, due to the unique set of conditions they operate under and their distinct practices. Keeping aside the basic things of SEO, such as publishing quality content, maintaining good social media campaigns, etc., e-commerce sites need to implement specific and unique strategies that maximize organic search traffic, sales, leads, and business growth.

So how do you know what strategies and practices will help you in rising to the top? Don’t worry. We have some of the SEO strategies for your e-commerce site:

1. Unique Product Description for Products :

Creating unique product descriptions for all products is essential. It might be easy and comfortable for you to copy & paste the manufacturer's description for every product or have the same type of content for similar products, but the best strategy is to design a totally unique description for each and every product on your site.

It may seem like a hell of a lot of work upfront, but redundant data can severely damage your SEO campaign. So consider having a unique content description for products that will definitely pay off at the end of the day.

2. Support User Product Reviews :

Prompt your users to post product reviews on every product page. Popular e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc., perfectly encourage their consumers to post user reviews. Every search engine loves to see unique, quality content.

With an e-commerce site in hand, you have a great opportunity to produce free content not from anywhere else but from your user base. In addition to that, you can enhance your sales by providing consumers with more insights into the quality and reliability of the products you sell.

3. Build an Easy Website Exploration

Simple site exploration is crucial for attaining higher rankings in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and enhancing user experience. Design your sitemap in a simple and easy-to-follow way that pleases your consumers and instantly directs them where to go.

Plan your product pages in order and as intuitively as possible, differentiating them into simply searchable and understandable sections. Doing so will help your consumers in finding products in a hassle-free way.

4. Optimize Your Site Loading Time :

It's good to have high-resolution images on your site but not at the cost of maximizing your site loading time. Too many high-resolution images can slow down your site, which is bad for SEO. I am not saying to have low-quality images for product references but try reducing the size of website images. This way, you can maintain both quality images and reduce your site loading time.

Build a "Zoom-in" feature that allows users to see a larger picture of the product they wish to buy. This will maintain your site load speed in place while still giving your consumers the quality they want.

5. Link Building Offers Great Benefits :

Link building is important for SEO strategy since search engines value quality over quantity; a solid link from a highly-visited and trusted site can bring and enhance traffic, which means more leads, sales, and revenue for your e-commerce site. Make sure it is a relevant website and is useful for consumers otherwise, and black hat link building can bring a bad reputation and Google Penalty to your website.

6. Make it a 100% Responsive Site :

Because of its complex navigation issues, making a website mobile responsive is essential for any website, especially for e-commerce stores. Give your customers a great user experience through a sleek user interface and responsive design.

Providing an interactive app attracts new customers and enhances customer retention. As this is already in the market, making users' lives easy and will be a must and should be in the coming years.

7. Incorporate Social Media Share Buttons in Product Pages :

Anyway, you will have your basic social integration, but other than that, integrate your product pages with social media sharing buttons so that the consumers can share specific products and their information with their friends, relatives, followers, etc. This is a great marketing strategy and also good for SEO because, at times, search engines may use social signals as a standard of authority.

8. Add a Community Forum :

Another strategy from where e-commerce platforms get benefits of linking & traffic is from the community forums. Add a forum where the customers can exchange information about products, prices, suggestions, etc., with one another. It will improve your brand value and customer loyalty amongst the public. Support the forum by responding to their queries and complaints on a regular basis.

9. Include Videos & Images of Products :

Consumers can't touch or feel the product by themselves still e-commerce platforms are growing aggressively. This is because of visual content. It is important to show your products well to them, so include good-quality videos and images of the product from different angles. But also make sure those images don't interfere with site loading times.

10. Ensure Site Safety & Security :

Hackers are all around the world and are stealing customers' credit cards and other confidential information from e-commerce platforms. So in order to protect your customer's payment-related information, make sure your site has HTTPS encryption. SSL certificate acts like an extra layer of protection by encrypting sensitive information from eavesdroppers. And thus protects your site from theft, hacking, and fraudulent activities.

11. Internal Linking Between Relevant Pages :

Strategic internal linking is a great SEO marketing technique. Users always prefer sites with value-adding internal linking. It increases the overall search-optimized value of a website and provides clear navigation and prolonged sessions for consumers. You will encounter a stronger link profile and good SEO through constant internal linking.

12. Seasonal Products Create Maximum Attention :

Seasonal products tend to create great attention since they have lower keyword competition. To create attention in your customers, create particular seasonal category pages like "Christmas Decor" or "Summer Fashion."

13. Check for Error 404 Page :

By the time your customers get to your error 404 page, your goodwill is already in trouble. E-commerce platforms can grow clumsy quickly because of their growing number of pages. You need to perform regular checks and have good maintenance so that your permalinks are free from 404 errors.

With the help of Google Webmaster Tools and Screaming Frog, a site-crawling site tool, you can do your routine checks.

14. Match URLs to Titles :

Match your e-commerce site's every product page title to the URL, and should be keyword optimized. Never use an automated means of page creation because of its long, never-ending series of numbers or alphabets. Let's say if you are offering blue color pillow covers, then end your URL with /blue-pillow-covers-x1 rather than /5482849567098.

15. Catchy Meta Descriptions That Include Keywords :

The first thing that happens when a page appears on SERP is the meta descriptions arrive as text under the hyperlink. So write compelling copies for all your products' meta descriptions and make sure you instantly catch your consumers' attention and get them in.

16. Optimize Your Website's Internal Search Function :

Great navigation alone is not enough to convert your prospects into potential customers. You need a good internal search; they must be modified to reflect your e-commerce business.

If you really want your consumers regularly shop on your website, then you ought to build and modify your internal search function that can successfully search your site and give the best and most relevant results to your consumers. You can optimize your internal search functionality by optimizing your product categories to be more searchable both internally and externally.

Final Thoughts :

You could also guest blog, as it helps you in getting authority links that search engine loves. But do not do it just for links; provide good quality rich content that will help your users.

User experience in e-commerce is inherently important since it provides customers with a platform to find exactly what they want and need. The purpose of your e-commerce website is not only to attract customers and make on-time sales but instead to prompt customers to back again and again for their needs.

That is what search engine optimization is meant to be. Real businesses that have a huge impact on us are not built overnight, either just like that. They grow over the years because consumers love them.

If implemented immediately, the above-mentioned strategies can work for you and make periodic changes as your e-commerce business flourishes. Compared to other websites, e-commerce has unique challenges and hurdles that are related to search engine optimization. But, with proper practices and SEO strategies in place, it will be much easier for them to grow and stand out from the crowd.

Author

Megha Parikh is a digital marketing expert who has been journeying through digital marketing for more than seven years. She is currently associated with SSL2BUY and especially enjoys learning about eCommerce website security and conversion rate optimization.

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