Setting ecommerce SEO priorities means addressing the behaviors that often lead to greater ranks for ecommerce merchants.
Google rarely reveals its algorithm. This lack of transparency causes SEOs to operate in the dark. It’s like doctors fighting an unknown illness. Sure, Google searches can lead to purchases. Other times, the shopper is prompted to study products. This makes tracking the return on your investment from the SEO a bit tough.
SEO Priorities for Your eCommerce Business
However, you can still set ecommerce SEO priorities to address the behaviors that often lead to greater ranks for ecommerce merchants. 80% of your everyday SEO actions should be part of the four items below.
Priority #1. Crawl Budget
Googlebot has a certain bandwidth for each website. Googlebot explores a site using familiar paths. In addition, it searches for fresh pages. Google says the more valuable a site is, the more bandwidth Googlebot gets. Pages on a website may not be on the index because Google is unaware of them. Furthermore, crawling and determining their purpose can consume too much data.
This way, you can eliminate pathways and pages that are useless to users and therefore to Google. Faceted browsing and dynamic URLs might result in duplicate pages on ecommerce sites.
To combat crawl waste, use canonical tags in the robots.txt file. Bloat on huge ecommerce sites takes time to find. However, making the modifications takes even longer. In addition, it’s usually done manually. However, it can help Googlebot speed up.
Priority #2. Meta Descriptions and Title Tags
The title tag helps you rank better for the keywords. Although not a ranking factor, meta descriptions are useful. However, that’s only half the story.
Searchers scan the title tag, according to eye-tracking research. Their attention is drawn to the tag. If they resonate with the title tag and meta description, they will click. This is vital. It implies spending time on the meta description and title to create a cohesive message.
An Example:
Consider the Google query “buy nylon guitar strings.” Page one results are all disappointing. Guitar Center’s title tag uses the category name “Nylon Strings”. This is the meta description: “Get the best nylon guitar prices at Guitar Center. Most orders qualify for free shipping.”
However, Google omits part of the description. Therefore, suppose consumers don’t know that this is an eCommerce store? There’s no incentive to click if searchers don’t realize Guitar Center sells online. It’s also uncertain where they would land if they did click.
Guitar Center’s listing uses the category name as the title tag. In addition, the meta description is truncated. This confuses searchers.
Clustered results favored Musician’s Friend. In the top result, it says “Nylon Strings | Musician’s Friend.” Nevertheless, it’s not very compelling. However, “How to Choose the Right Strings for Your Acoustic or Classical Guitar” is more appealing. If you were trying to decide, you might click the second listing.
Priority #3. Usability and Speed
Make Google’s SEO recommendations a priority. Google has been emphasizing speed for a few years now. Google now ranks pages on page speed. In addition, they encourage AMP for even speedier sites.
We all want a speedy page. It’s as vital as navigation. Cleaner, faster websites nearly always improve income. However, page speed isn’t just a ranking factor. It also increases conversions. Customers will wait for pages to load in under three seconds. Therefore, the back button is your biggest enemy if your page is slow.
Priority #4. Content and Links
Google considers a link to be an endorsement. However, without an incentive, linking to product pages is difficult. Nevertheless, paying for links is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Google’s link algorithms are intricate. In addition, not all links are equal. A hundred fresh links from low-traffic or unknown sites would make no difference. However, a single link from a big news source could boost your entire site. Therefore, despite the challenges, don’t overlook link building.
With changes in the economy and society, eCommerce, though resilient, can find it difficult to manage the shifting sands of business. In addition, with recession and war entering the picture, the outlook can be hazy, at best. However, businesses that prioritize a crawl budget in order to optimize their SEO will find it easier to succeed during these difficult times. In addition, upgrading and improving titles and meta descriptions can be a big help in driving traffic to your site.
Furthermore, usability and speed can be priorities for any eCommerce site. As time is spent optimizing these factors, there will be an increase in both traffic and revenue. Finally, when your business prioritizes content and links in such a way that they are the best they can be, you will see a similar rise in website effectiveness.
Image credit: Philipp Pistis; Pexels
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