Your e-commerce site and effective search engine optimization (SEO), are key factors in the success of your business.

If you take the right approach, more potential customers will find your e-commerce site via search engines results pages (SERPs), browse your pages, and then consider purchasing products from you.

Search engines like Google are the first place 93% of internet experiences start. SEO can help improve your website’s visibility.

It is possible to drive more visitors and sales to your website if more people click it.

However, businesses should know that not all SEO techniques can be used for e-commerce websites. This is why you need to understand the differences between white hat and black hat.

Black-hat SEO can not only hurt your search engine rankings and your reputation, but it could also cause your ecommerce website to be permanently banned by Google.

Be mindful of the SEO strategies that you use on your ecommerce website. These are some tips to improve your ecommerce SEO.

The 8 Best Tips for Ecommerce SEO

1. Use Proper URL Structure

Your e-commerce website URL is like a business card. It is the first thing that potential customers will see when they land on a website.

They might reconsider visiting your e-commerce site if it appears messy. Search engines might not be capable of crawling and indexing your web pages properly. Your web pages may not be listed in SERPs if they are noindex.

This is why your URL for your e-commerce site should be easy to read, as illustrated in the example image below.

2. Keep your content current

You must not only create high-quality content on your e-commerce site, but also ensure that all images and texts are current to keep it relevant and interesting to read.

Your updated content will perform better in search engines’ SERPs, since the purpose of a search engine is to provide useful information to its users. Make sure you update your content frequently.

These are the essential things to remember when creating quality content.

• Focus on clarity and writing clearly
• Be consistent with your brand voice
• Keep it simple
• Insert keywords in the correct areas

3. Secure Your Certificate With SSL

Today’s consumers are becoming more sophisticated in their customer purchasing journeys.

Before they even go to a website’s web pages, they make sure they have an SSL certificate.

SSL certification refers to your website’s URL that has an “S” after the “HTTP” which means secure. It will also have a padlock icon in its address bar.

An SSL certificate allows for an encrypted connection between a website server and a browser.

4. Prioritize Product Pages

Prioritizing your product pages is another way to improve your website’s SEO. It will encourage potential customers to purchase if the product pages are attractive.

You should not only add the correct keywords to your product description but also use high quality images and a zooming feature to allow customers to view the products closer and leave feedback.

5. Do regular maintenance

Your e-commerce website, like your brick-and mortar store, also needs regular maintenance.

There is one difference: instead of fixing leaks and changing light bulbs, you should be looking out for technical SEO issues on your ecommerce website.

These issues relate to the technical aspects of your website, such as duplicate content, poor mobile experiences, improper redirects and other problems.

Before you can fix any technical SEO issues on your ecommerce website, it is important to identify the root causes. These are some tools that you can use for regular maintenance.

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console

6. Enhance the UX of Your E-Commerce Website

You should also improve your website’s UX. User experience is an acronym that refers to the user’s interaction and navigation while browsing through e-commerce websites.

These tips will help you improve the UX on your e-commerce website.

• Invite guests to sign up with their Google or Facebook account
• Use responsive design for mobile optimization
• Add customer support
• Request more delivery options and payment options
• Be open about your inventory

7. Do not use broken links

If you could put yourself in the shoes of your customers, how would it feel to click on a particular web page and get nothing but “404 Page Not Found”?

Broken links can lead to this unfortunate outcome. Customers who are interested in purchasing the product will not be able to view it or access its web pages.

Prior to a website visitor discovering broken links on your website’s e-commerce site, fix them immediately.

To check if there are broken links on your e-commerce website, use Google Search Console and W3C link Checker.

8. Speed up your E-Commerce Website

Everyone hates the idea of waiting because of our fast-paced lives. Google reports that consumers are more likely to leave an ecommerce website if it takes longer than three seconds for a page to load.

You can avoid losing customers due to slow loading times on your e-commerce site.

The quicker it is, the more valuable it is. Customers can begin their journey to purchase as soon as they arrive on your site.