Techniques To Improve On Page SEO for eCommerce Websites
Aaron Levenstadt CEO & Founder
July 26, 2022 | 5 Min Read
Article updated on August 26, 2022
Find the Best keywords for eCommerce website
Before conducting an SEO audit, we always review what keywords a website is already ranking for and then conduct keyword research to decide what they should be ranking for.
Keyword research helps us understand how prospective buyers are using Google to find your products and/or products like yours. When conducting an SEO audit on b2c websites, we generally focus on three types of keyword groups: Primary, Product, and Content Keywords.
Don’t Forget the Role of Primary Keywords on Your eCommerce Website’s SEO
Primary keywords are the holistic keywords we want the entire website and/or brand to rank for. For example, a primary keyword for an eCommerce website selling soccer gloves and other protective gear might be ‘soccer equipment’. Primary keywords tend to be short- and medium-tail.
Product Keywords Can Drive Users With Commercial Intent to Your Website
Product keywords are the specific keywords we want each individual product to rank for in search. For example, the aforementioned eCommerce brand might want its glove product page to rank for ‘professional soccer gloves’.
Product keywords tend to be medium- to long-tail. Try and find keywords with ‘transactional’ or ‘commercial’ intent. In other words, bottom-of-funnel keywords.
Users With Informational Intent Will Be Attracted to Content Keywords
Content keywords are often the top-of-funnel keywords we want to use in our content strategy. For example, we may want to write a blog post titled How to Prevent Soccer Finger Injuries that ranks for the content keyword ‘prevent soccer finger injuries’.
Title Tags Have a Great Impact on Website’s Organic CTR Rate
After we’ve conducted thorough keyword research, we review the website’s title tags. Specifically, we want to ensure each indexable page has a unique title tag that mirrors the keyword we want the page to rank for.
Add a Call-to-action to the Meta Description to Increase Click-throughs
A meta description is a short blurb in an organic listing that describes what the webpage is about. The majority of websites do not have it visible to visitors, but Google crawls it and it is worth paying attention to.
During an on-page seo audit, You should every page’s meta description is unique, reflects the keyword you want the page to rank for, and also contains active CTAs like ‘Shop’ or ‘Learn More’. Like title tags, meta descriptions directly impact click-through rate. Here’s how a title tag appears in Google.
Improve Engagement and Organic Traffic With Optimized Headings
One of the most important SEO on-page variables are headings. Headings (especially H1s/Page Titles) help Google’s spiders understand what the entire webpage is going to be about. You can think of an H1 as the title of a book – it should clearly explain in layman’s terms what the user will find if they read the content.
When we’re conducting an eCommerce SEO audit, You have to ensure there’s no major duplication between H1s. You also want to ensure H1s more often than not contain the keyword we’d like the webpage to rank for. Another important point about H1s is that your page should only have one H1.
If the page is a product page, you need to ensure the H1 is descriptive and niche. For example, if an eCommerce website selling women’s clothing had a category page with the H1 ‘Tops’, we’d want to change it to a more specific H1 like ‘Formal Blouses’ or ‘Women’s Tank Tops’.
Your Online Store’s Images May Perform Better With Alt Text
Alt text (aka Alternative Text) is a short description coded into images to help the seeing impaired and other individuals using page screen readers understand what an image is. Alt text is important to SEO because it helps Google understand what images to rank in an image search.
Alt text should clearly but neatly describe what the image is. If possible, it should also contain a relevant keyword. For example, a good alt text might read, ‘A woman wearing a formal blouse in an office.’
In an SEO audit of your online store, make sure all images that you want to be indexed have relevant alt text. You should also avoid using keywords in the alt tag of images that are irrelevant to your business, such as client logos.Optimize Internal Linking to Ensure All Pages Will Be Indexed
Linking between pages is essential to a SEO-optimized website for two reasons.
First, interlinking helps Google’s spiders jump from page to page and easily index your entire website. If a web page only has one link (or no links) pointing to it, it’s difficult for Google to find and crawl the page.
Second, interlinking between pages helps users easily navigate your website. For example, including ‘Related Products’. Or using blog posts to draw traffic in from search engines, and then including links to relevant products or category pages.
Optimized Category & Product Pages Means More Sales
Most eCommerce websites have two unique page types other websites don’t: Category Pages & Product Pages. Category pages will aggregate related products into one page. They serve as a simple solution for customers to browse all of the products a business has.
Product pages are specific to individual products. They usually contain the product name, a description of the product, images of the product, and customer reviews. Both page types are extremely important to SEO and should be an important part of your SEO eCommerce audit.
How to Optimize Category Pages of Your Online Store?
Targets Specific Mid-Funnel Keywords
When auditing an eCommerce website, it’s important to ensure each category page is optimized for a specific, Mid-funnel keyword. We use mid-funnel keywords when your products are known to users, but they are not ready to purchase. They are considering buying the product.
For example, an online shoe store may want a category page optimized for the keyword ‘women’s tennis shoes’. This page would then aggregate all of the store’s women’s tennis shoes.
Unique Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, & Headings
While reviewing your site, it’s important to ensure every category page has unique meta descriptions, title tags, and headings. All three of these SEO elements should reflect the exact keyword you want the page to rank for. Duplicate titles or meta descriptions may result in Google showing only one of your pages and hiding the others.
How to Improve On-Page SEO of Product Pages
Targets Specific Bottom-of-Funnel Keywords
Product pages should be optimized for a single bottom-of-funnel keyword. You should use keywords with high commercial intent because the visitors of these pages have a high intent to buy a product. Product page keywords tend to be long-tail; often the more specific, the better.
These two keywords are excellent candidates for SEO on a product page of a relevant online store because they have high commercial intent. 1- Nike men’s sneaker gymnastics shoes 2- Skechers mens go golf elite 4 victory golf shoes. We highly recommend that you watch this video on Shopify SEO Optimization if you own a Shopify store,Unique Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, & Headings
Also just like category pages, it’s important that every single product page’s meta description, title tag, and heading is unique. This ensures each page has its own chance to rank in search engines.
Get More Relevant Traffic with Product Name Templates
An advanced SEO strategy most eCommerce brands don’t execute is creating a product name template. The exact product name template you use will depend on the type of product you’re selling. A good apparel template might look like this:
Gender, Item, Style/Fit, Colour, Material,
In practice, this might look like: Men’s Loose-Fit Jeans Dark-Blue Denim.
No matter what template you create, avoid using too much branded terminology. Instead, focus on using language similar to what a prospective customer would type into Google.
Product Descriptions Play a Crucial Role in on-page SEO
Also unique to product pages are product descriptions. Depending on the website, a product description may be a paragraph detailing what the product is. It could also be a series of bullet points highlighting various aspects of the product (for example, furniture size ratios). In many instances, it’s both: a description plus bullets with important aspects.
When Google crawls a product page, it will read the description to try and understand what the product is. It’s important that you write clean, robust descriptions of the product to ensure Google gets a good picture of what it is.
Boost Sales With Call-to-action Buttons
In order to improve conversions, it’s important that product pages contain at least one bold call-to-action. A good CTA should pop on the screen and encourage the user to make a purchase. If the user doesn’t know how to buy or add an item to their cart, it could result in a lower conversion rate.
Make sure your call to action isn’t too pushy, you don’t want the visitor to feel uncomfortable. Take a look at the product pages of the most famous brands in your industry and try to incorporate their ideas into your own.Product Reviews Increase Trustworthiness and Clickthroughs
The final item we like to ensure all product pages have are authentic customer reviews. In our experience, having positive reviews on a product page plays a significant role in building trust and often drives higher conversion rates.
It’s important that user reviews be aggregated from third-party review sites like TrustPilot or Google My Business. These sites prevent business owners from tampering with their reviews, ensuring they’re reliable.
Check Out Our eCommerce Website On-page SEO Checklist
Online illustrations by Storyset
How to optimize an eCommerce product page for SEO?
- Targets specific bottom-of-funnel keywords
- Use unique meta descriptions, title tags, & headings for each page
- Create product name templates
- Write relevant and descriptive product descriptions
- Include at least one bold call-to-action
- Ensure all product pages have authentic customer reviews.
How to Optimize Category Pages of Your Online Store?
The category page should showcase more than just your products. As a first step, you should add a unique title tag and a unique H1 with the most relevant keywords to each page. Afterwards, you can add a box of text to the bottom of the page, where you can add an H2 heading with relevant keywords and include a blurb including a short introduction, the name of your products and some low search volume keywords. The page can also be further improved by adding a few links to other category pages and inviting users to visit them.
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Aaron Levenstadt
CEO & Founder
Aaron Levenstadt completed his degree in Statistical & Data Science at Stanford University. That focus has given him an unparalleled data-driven approach to search engine digital marketing. Prior to founding Pedestal Search, Aaron worked at Google at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View California. At Google he worked on the Organic Search, Paid Search and Google Analytics products, which equipped him with extensive knowledge of the mechanisms driving Google’s algorithm and other internet search engines.