{"id":103,"date":"2021-06-11T23:13:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T22:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/?p=103"},"modified":"2022-03-11T22:05:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T21:05:17","slug":"everything-you-ever-needed-to-know-about-seo-for-ecommerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/?p=103","title":{"rendered":"Everything You Ever Needed to Know About SEO for Ecommerce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After you\u2019ve created your amazing E-commerce site (don\u2019t be modest, it\u2019s awesome), comes the hard part:&nbsp;<strong>getting people to come to your site<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The essential step in launching your own E-commerce is making sure that your future customers can find your site when they\u2019re searching for your type of product.&nbsp;<strong>It comes down to three little letters: SEO.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SEO (or search engine optimization) is what&nbsp;<strong>allows search engines (namely Google) to find your site and show it in search results<\/strong>&nbsp;when customers are searching for the types of products you sell. So it happens naturally right? If someone\u2019s looking for your products, they\u2019ll find it as soon as you launch the site, right?<\/p>\n<p>Wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Natural search engine referencing takes time.&nbsp;<strong>Search engine crawlers need to find your site via the content that you put on your site<\/strong>&nbsp;(content= words, which also include words in alternate text, and various other types of media- but we\u2019ll get to that). This usually takes a few months if your referencing is absolutely perfect- if it\u2019s not, it could take even longer.<\/p>\n<p>SEO strategy should be at the top of your list of marketing strategies. Your site isn\u2019t going to pop up in front of your customers on its own (well, it could, but that\u2019s a whole other subject). So what\u2019s the first step? Choosing your keywords.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Keyword_choice_for_effective_referencing_the_heart_of_SEO_strategy\"><strong>KEYWORD CHOICE FOR EFFECTIVE REFERENCING: THE HEART OF SEO STRATEGY<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Showing up in relevant searches is not an option for E-commerce, its necessary to its survival.<\/strong>&nbsp;An optimized presence on search engines is still the best way to meet the demand with your offer.<\/p>\n<p>Referencing allows for the optimization of a site in order to improve search engine rankings. Without a doubt,&nbsp;<strong>an E-commerce in the top spot on any Google search has an enormous advantage<\/strong>. But how do you get to the front page, much less the top spot?<\/p>\n<p>One of the best ways to get your SEO ball rolling is to create relevant content for your site. It\u2019s a simple concept:&nbsp;<strong>more content=more ways for search engines to find you<\/strong>. But in order to create relevant content for your site, you need to understand the process that a buyer goes through when shopping online. Second, you need to choose which keywords are going to bring the right people in front of your products. From there, you need to flood your content with your best keywords to get your site as findable as possible.<\/p>\n<h4>THE PURCHASE DECISION PROCESS<\/h4>\n<p>The decision to purchase an item (non-spontaneously) goes through 5 critical steps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Idea<\/strong>: the consumer realizes there\u2019s a need for a product.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Search<\/strong>: the consumer starts looking around online for a product that matches up the best with their original idea.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Comparison<\/strong>: there are several offers for the consumer\u2019s demand, so they will compare between several products based on price, quality, site trust, and ease of shopping experience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Decision<\/strong>: the consumer chooses their product, and purchases it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Service<\/strong>: the phase when a consumer would need to contact customer service, review an item, or anything concerning the purchase after it\u2019s been paid for.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each of these steps is an&nbsp;<strong>opportunity to make your consumer turn to you over a competitor<\/strong>. Once you understand the process that someone goes through to purchase, it\u2019s time to choose your keywords.<\/p>\n<h4>CHOOSING THE BEST KEYWORDS<\/h4>\n<p>Break out your thesaurus, it\u2019s time to get wordy.<\/p>\n<p>Start by choosing the basic words that concern your products. Let\u2019s say you sell different types of sneakers and running shoes. You need to look at your business of selling sneakers from all angles.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Start with your basics<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sneakers<\/li>\n<li>Running Shoes<\/li>\n<li>Tennis shoes<\/li>\n<li>Foot gear<\/li>\n<li>Shoes<\/li>\n<li>Cleats<\/li>\n<li>Basketball shoes<\/li>\n<li>Gym shoes<\/li>\n<li>Hightops<\/li>\n<li>Rubber-soled shoes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You might think that this is a fine set of keywords, and you\u2019re done. Unfortunately, these are the&nbsp;<strong>keywords all of your competitors have already thought of and are using as well<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>From here you start going for indirect keywords. Don\u2019t stay focused on your own business, but&nbsp;<strong>widen your lens to accommodate for all sectors in your domain<\/strong>.&nbsp; If your sneakers are more on the sporty side, you can try using words like \u201cbasketball sneakers\u201d and even better with specific phrases like \u201cBest basketball sneakers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From here, you can put your list of keywords through Google\u2019s&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/adwords.google.com\/KeywordPlanner\">keyword planner<\/a><\/strong>. You have to create a&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecommerce-nation.com\/everything-you-ever-needed-to-know-about-seo-for-ecommerce\/adwords.google.com\">Google Adwords<\/a><\/strong>account, but you don\u2019t have to launch a campaign to use the tool. You just click at the top of tools and go to keyword planner. Then it\u2019s a simple story of copy and paste.&nbsp;<strong>Google will help you by suggesting variations of your keywords<\/strong>&nbsp;that you can implement into your content.<\/p>\n<p>From this point, you\u2019ll be able to find the best keywords for your site.&nbsp;<strong>A good keyword is relevant, brings in a good amount of traffic, and is specific enough to not be used by everyone<\/strong>&nbsp;and their brother.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>A good keyword is relevant, brings in a good amount of traffic, and is specific enough to not be used by everyone.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you choose good keywords, you\u2019ll be able to generate a flux of traffic to your E-commerce site. If you don\u2019t want your site to be nudged out of the first page, forget the popular keywords and concentrate on the specific ones for a long-term strategy.<\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>EVALUATE THE KEYWORD STRATEGY<\/h4>\n<p><strong>A keyword is useful if it brings in visitors who are interested in your product, and end up purchasing form your site<\/strong>. If you have a<strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecommerce-nation.com\/everything-you-ever-needed-to-know-about-seo-for-ecommerce\/analytics.google.com\">Google Analytics<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;account (and you really should. No seriously, go make one now), you can get an idea of how effective your keywords are by looking at the sources of your traffic (in organic if you\u2019ve gone ahead with an Adwords campaign).<\/p>\n<h5>EVALUATE THE RELEVANCE<\/h5>\n<p><strong>There are three main ways to see if your keywords are relevant for you<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Objectives<\/strong>: If you have defined conversion objectives, this can be the best indicator of keyword relevance.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Average time spent on the site<\/strong>: A keyword that keeps visitors on your site longer has a better chance of conversion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Number of page views<\/strong>: it\u2019s the amount of traffic coming into your site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>EVALUATE THE VOLUME<\/h5>\n<p>Evaluating the volume of keywords is essentially&nbsp;<strong>analyzing the amount of potential traffic a keyword can bring you<\/strong>. Google\u2019s keyword planner indicates the number of monthly estimated searches for each word. They\u2019re usually even listed in order from the most popular.<\/p>\n<h5>EVALUATE THE COMPETITION<\/h5>\n<p>There are two ways you can do this-the hard\/free way, or the easy\/paid way. You can search for&nbsp;<strong>all your own keywords to see which of your competitors have used them<\/strong>, which can take a bit of time to do. Or, you can use a great tool (that I\u2019ve personally used for previous Ad campaigns)<strong>&nbsp;called&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/\">Moz<\/a>&nbsp;which evaluates the keywords any given competitor triggers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Plug_in_your_Best_Keywords\">PLUG IN YOUR BEST KEYWORDS<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve chosen your best possible keywords, it\u2019s time for content creation. There are several different ways and tools you can use to create relevant content for your E-commerce, and here are a few tips on how to do that.<\/p>\n<h4>AVOID YOUR CTRL+C\/CTRL+V<\/h4>\n<p>Don\u2019t copy and paste from other sites. Outside of the moral ambiguity and the potential legal copyright issues,&nbsp;<strong>Google will consider your site referenced weaker if it thinks you\u2019re a duplicate of another site<\/strong>.&nbsp;<strong>You can get subsequently penalized by the search engine which could kill your ranking<\/strong>. Also, make sure your own pages are each different with new, fresh content.<\/p>\n<p>We know this is long, difficult work, but it\u2019s worth it for great SEO performance.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>PUT UP A BLOG FOR RELEVANT BACKLINKS<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Creating a blog is the first great step to having a performant SEO strategy<\/strong>. This allows you to&nbsp;<strong>create content on a more fluid basis<\/strong>&nbsp;and will give you the opportunity to&nbsp;<strong>create traffic to your site via backlinks<\/strong>. At best, you should publish at least an article per week and start backlinking to your home page. These are also particularly useful in terms of social media marketing, as you will be able to&nbsp;<strong>share your articles and engage your customers<\/strong>&nbsp;easily.<\/p>\n<p>Using backlinks to invite search engines to your crawlable site, as well as indexing your site, it\u2019s important to get your articles featured on blogs in the same theme as yours.&nbsp;<strong>These first links show Google that you exist.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, how do you do it?<\/p>\n<h5>LISTING YOUR BLOG<\/h5>\n<p>You can start by&nbsp;<strong>listing your site in blog directories and blog search engines<\/strong>. You simply need to sign up with the name of your blog, its URL and a short description. Go for quality, not quantity. These sites will reference each article that you publish on your site.<\/p>\n<h5>SUBMIT A PRESS RELEASE<\/h5>\n<p>There are press release sites dedicated to search engine referencing. In order to use this, you write a summary of your blog activities and&nbsp;<strong>strategically incorporate URLs back to your site<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h5>SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING<\/h5>\n<p>As soon as a new article is published,&nbsp;<strong>share it on social media<\/strong>. What\u2019s more, you can target certain groups, like on LinkedIn. Members of relevant groups on LinkedIn might be interested in your articles.<\/p>\n<h5>LEAVE COMMENTS ON OTHER BLOGS<\/h5>\n<p>At first,&nbsp;<strong>target blogs that talk about the same or similar things that you do<\/strong>. This can offer you the opportunity to plug your blog in the comments section of other blogs with a&nbsp;<strong>relevant comment about how the article applies to the blog post in question<\/strong>&nbsp;(but do this sparingly, it can be looked down upon if you\u2019re spammy).<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Playing_the_Long_Game\">PLAYING THE LONG GAME<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>The best kind of SEO strategy to have is one that takes the long term into account.<\/strong>&nbsp;The better content you put on your site from the beginning, the better things will be when your natural referencing takes off.&nbsp;<strong>By publishing quality content regularly, you are setting yourself up for an easier time later on.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[Tweet \u201cThe best kind of SEO strategy to have is one that takes the long term into account.\u201d]<\/p>\n<p>Keywords are in high demand, and fiercely competitive. They only generate 20% of traffic. However, the<strong>&nbsp;other 80% of search traffic comes from longer, more specific expressions that are less often searched, but will allow a better conversion rate<\/strong>. There are a few ways to figure out which keywords will serve you better in the long term:<\/p>\n<h4>GOOGLE ADWORDS<\/h4>\n<p>We already mentioned the Keyword planner, but launching an&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/adwords.google.com\/\">AdWords<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;campaign in the beginning can help boost you in the time it takes for your natural referencing to pick up. Using AdWords can also help you&nbsp;<strong>find great long-term keywords<\/strong>. It\u2019s really a fantastic tool with&nbsp;<strong>built-in optimization tips<\/strong>&nbsp;at every turn.&nbsp;<strong>Google will even call you and walk you through the process if you need it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>GOOGLE SEARCH SUGGESTIONS<\/h4>\n<p>Another technique is to start typing the the Google search bar and see what comes up.&nbsp;<strong>If it shows up, there\u2019s a high demand for that keyword.<\/strong>&nbsp;If it doesn\u2019t show up immediately, it might be specific enough to use for your long term campaign.<\/p>\n<h4>ANALYZE YOUR COMPETITION<\/h4>\n<p>What are your competitors using in their long term strategy? What keeps showing up in their RSS feeds? You can even use free word cloud sites to take content from your competitor\u2019s site and show which words pop up the most.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>OPTIMIZE REFERENCE STRATEGY<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Reference your site, not only with fresh content, but with different types of content. You have to attack by every angle.<\/p>\n<h4>ENRICH YOUR CONTENT WITH IMAGES<\/h4>\n<p>There is no referencing without content. While content is, for the most part, text, you can also use video and pictures. The&nbsp;<strong>photos of your products play an important part in referencing<\/strong>, and you can&nbsp;<strong>give them a boost<\/strong>&nbsp;by making sure each image on your site has&nbsp;<strong>alternate text<\/strong>&nbsp;(what shows up when the image doesn\u2019t load).<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Let8217s_get_Technical\">LET\u2019S GET TECHNICAL<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In the old days, you could reference with description tags that were hidden from view, but crawlable for search engines. Today, these tags aren\u2019t too useful. Search engines almost never really read them. There are other elements that take priority with search engines:&nbsp;<strong>the domain name, URL, page type, and then the tags<\/strong>. The technical structure of your site can determine if tags are more or less counted by search engines.<\/p>\n<p>A good way to test this is to try sites that&nbsp;<strong>analyze your SEO<\/strong>&nbsp;like&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.site-analyzer.com\/\">https:\/\/www.site-analyzer.com<\/a>.<\/strong>&nbsp;If you have a WordPress for your blog, I highly suggest installing&nbsp;<strong>SEO by&nbsp;Yoast<\/strong>, which gives you really cool tips right on the article page as to what you can do to improve the SEO of your post.<\/p>\n<h4>OPTIMIZE YOUR URLS<\/h4>\n<p>Each URL should be explicit so your reader will know exactly what page they\u2019re looking at. The shorter a URL is, the easier it is to memorize.<\/p>\n<h4>CREATE LINKS BETWEEN PRODUCTS<\/h4>\n<p>Internal links are a great way to reference your site with other similar (but different) types of content. You should&nbsp;<strong>create detailed and varied descriptions<\/strong>&nbsp;of your products to give yourself more content per page.<\/p>\n<h4>CREATE DETAILED META DESCRIPTIONS<\/h4>\n<p>A meta description shows a bit of information beneath your product (or page) in search results (as well as rich snippets).&nbsp;<strong>In 160 characters, you should integrate your keywords (not all of them, obviously) while grabbing the attention of a potential customer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4>INTEGRATE RICH SNIPPETS<\/h4>\n<p>Google is the ultimate go-to for research, this much is clear. However, site links aren\u2019t the only type of content that we see in Google searches: a typical Google search includes videos, reviews, images, and news articles. We\u2019ve talked about rich snippets before, and they\u2019re not only useful for mobile search.&nbsp;<strong>Offering a variety of content will give you more space on the search page, allowing your visitor even more information (and a better chance at finding the information they\u2019re looking for).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>These tools are the absolute most basic way to understand the evolution of your audience and the effectiveness of keyword optimization.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4><strong>CREATE YOUR PRESENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: THE FASTLANE TO REFERENCING<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>You don\u2019t need me to tell you how&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ecommerce-nation.com\/social-media-stronger-than-ever-for-e-commerce\/\">important it is to be present on social media<\/a><\/strong>. Social media is ingrained in our daily lives- and you should think of this when getting your business present on these platforms.&nbsp;<strong>Not every network is great for every business<\/strong>, so it\u2019s important to think about&nbsp;<strong>how your customers use this platform<\/strong>, and if there is a way that you can use it for your E-commerce. These sites are already referenced, and having a significant presence on them will amplify your own referencing.<\/p>\n<p>What you really need to think about in terms of social media is not necessarily the visibility aspect, but the human interaction aspect. By interacting on a more personal level with your customers, you amplify your visibility and the trust that customers have in your brand.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re a new start up E-commerce, or a long-time veteran, a great SEO strategy can make a huge difference on sales and customer engagement. After all, how can customers buy your products if they can\u2019t find them? Following these tips will boost your E-commerce traffic with visitors who will turn into customers.<\/p>\n<p>Want to add something? Comment below or&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/whitblankenship\">tweet me<\/a><\/strong>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After you\u2019ve created your amazing E-commerce site (don\u2019t be modest, it\u2019s awesome), comes the hard part:&nbsp;getting people to come to<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/?p=103\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Everything You Ever Needed to Know About SEO for Ecommerce<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,53],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/whitneyblankenship.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/seo-for-ecommerce.png?fit=1080%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitneyblankenship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}