eCommerce SEO - The Simplified Guide to SEO for Online Stores In India

The best business strategies put to place will always yield maximum profits which is the goal for every business. Favourable Search Engine Optimization techniques should be adopted to be at a good position to fetch many customers. Different experts have come up with awesome tips that one should follow in order to have a good e-commerce website after establishment of a strong Search Engine Optimization strategy. Some of those tips include: 

 

1. Carrying out research

Researching on items is very essential as it tends to inform one on many vital things they were initially not aware of. Therefore, to begin with, one should priotise carrying out research in order to come up with a good e-commerce website. The research section is subdivided into two:

a) Keyword research

First and foremost, one should carry out keyword research as it is a vital tool in Search Engine Optimization. This is because if it happens that one selects wrong keywords, then they are at a position where their websites would do poorly as it would result to quality of low quality as well as lesser conversations. The keyword research section is further subdivided into three subsections:

• Selection of keywords for both product pages as well as the homepage 

People are highly advised to take into consideration of the relavancy, ranking difficulty as well as the search volumes of keywords especially in the course of optimization of pages of a certain website that are mmof most importance. This means that when it comes to relevancy, they should select keywords most relevant to their brand as well as products they are promoting. They should use the keyword tool provided by Moz to test the level of difficulty of keywords and should eventually select those with low score of difficulty. In the case of search volume, they are advised to select keywords that have identical matches to local search volumes and not global search volumes by the help of the Awards tool, a Google's free property. On the other hand, people should be cautious not to end up selecting keywords that are very broad since this would mean that others would fail to find what they are interested in finding despite having clicked through the former's website. Eventually, this results to very low rates of conversion as well as very high bounce rates. Besides, selection of keywords that are highly competitive would mean that quite some time would elapse before obtaining high rankings.

• Identification of keywords for blog topics

It is worth noting that coming up with unique blog content may helps much especially when it comes to those extra words that never got to fit in the main website space. In addition, it is possible for one to esure long tail keywords are on capitalization in blogs. Absolutely unique features or rather searches containing several words that people rely on to find online stuff are what we refer to as long rail keywords. They usually contain most of essential information that people all round the earth could be interested in searching for. One should ensure that the long tail keyword also, have the correct state of search volume which is being of identical much and should have a low score of difficulty. However, it essential to put much effort on ensuring that any content that they may create attracts the interest of others and not recklessly filling blog posts with keywords as it may be a bore. Therefore, concentration on provision of content purposely to win hearts of other people rather than search engines will surely be rewarding. This is because the google algorithm tends to punish those whose sites may seem as though they are out of manipulative ways and on the other hand favour sites containing interesting content.

• Ensuring there is no keyword cannibalization 

Often, keyword cannibalization occurs during times where several pages belonging to a common site attempt to use or rather rank for identical keywords. The kind of people that do this are usually not aware that it always cause confusion among various search engines that may alternatively decide to settle on any random page they may consider to be of more importance in the webpage to check out for a particular keyword. This yields a weaker possibility of acquiring traffic or rather clicks for that particular password. So, it is clear that people should refrain from utilizing words that result to cannibalization to be on the safe side of obtaining traffic. They should be sure to check up whether occurrence of cannibalization is likely to occur by spread sheeting all individual pages in their website together with the respective keyword of interest. They should check out for doubling of identical keywords in the column where keywords appear. If it appears that doubling occurs, then cannibalization has occurred and an alternative keyword should be used instead.

b) Competitor research

It is necessary that one gets to find out what tactics are being put to place by their foes in business and in most cases we refer to them as competitors. This is because; they are possibly targeting a common audience as well as competing to win hearts of common customers. It is wise to keep an eye on competitor's actions by considering the following factors:

• Competitor's choice of keywords

At this point people should come up with a list of all the keywords that are being put to utilization by competitors in their respective strategies. After, compilation is done; they should proceed on to check whether their Domain Authority (DA) as well as Page Authority is lower or higher than that of competitors by help of the Moz toolbar. This tool is free to use so people should not worry about additional costs. Page Authority as well as all essential details on ranking are found in the link data tab which is among the page elements tab. Once it is discovered that the rankings of the Domain authority is lower than that of the competitors, then the ultimate corrective action would be selection of alternative keywords in order to be at a good position to compete against them.

• Areas competitors acquire links

Open site explorer is usually of much importance when it comes to investigating of the areas competitors acquire their inbound links. Proceed on to eliminating sites that have low scores of Domain Authority as the sites may hinder awesome ranking resulting to owning of a poor site as google tends to assume that some other site has got links to you. Once the area is identified, people should attempt acquiring a link from this same sites or via press outreach as well as coming up with own company pages.

• The state of the navigation site

This requires one to check on the architecture of sites of competitors for several factors such as; related products, products searched recently, products that are most popular among a group as well as those that are top rated. This will tend to equip one with an idea of how deep that particular site should tend to go. The choice of whether to follow the exact identical route or rather a different one from that of the competitors is theirs to make. However, it is advisable that one keeps off emulating competitors that tend to be having deep navigation structures as this would hinder the formers from link influence to manage appearing in rankings of various search engines even if the competitors are a huge brand.

• Differentiating one's website from competitors strategy wise

This entails embracing a strategy that makes one absolutely unique from their competitors in order to make them outstanding. The different ways one may make his or her navigation structure boosted isby increasing the social state of the site or rather starting a blog incase competitors are not in ownership of one. This would certainly better the site for consumers' efficient use. 

 

2. Pointing out current problems

It very necessary to work on issues that may be arising so as to ensure that nothing hinders efficient traffic of a site. Problems are identified by auditing of one's site. 

a) Identification of errors in the site

Site owners are advised to utilize a free site that is referred to as the Screaming Frog in order to point out problems and get them fixed before it is too late. Once of the problems are identified, they should be corrected accordingly. Some of the solutions to problems includes: redirection of any 404 pagesr into the actual content, replacement of 302 redirects with 301 redirects instead as well as renewing duplicate content and Meta description among others.

b) Assessing how fast the website takes to respond

As we all know, the slower you are in business, the fewer customers you will have served in a day or rather receive. If a site tends to be slow as it opens, a few people will obviously be patient enough to wait for it to load. This means that only a few customers will end up viewing that particular site that is meant to advocate for products. Therefore, one should ensure that assessment of the site gets to be done by use of a site named Pingdom. A slow site is one that may take a period higher than three seconds to load the web. It should be corrected by purchasing additional website server space. Alternatively, one may opt to use different CMS or rather making images as well as sizes of files brief.

 

3. On page optimization

Optimization involves taking actions and making adjustments on a web page with a goal of ensirin that the ranking of a site improves. In order to ensure optimization, one should focus on several areas including: 

a) Ensuring optimization of keywords

Keyword optimization focuses on ensuring that optimization of pages as well as blog posts occurs on one's site for one particular keyword. However, in order for keyword optimization to be considered done well, keywords shilould have been placed at strategic places such as; headers, subheaders, metatitle as well as meta descriptions, description of products, page titles, URLs and in image files. On the other hand, when it comes to coming up with URLs, use of much amount of words as keywords should be avoided and only real words ought to be utilized to be sire that they are user friendly. Also, it is important to keep on mind that meta descriptions as well as titles ought not be stuffed with keywords and should instead actually read similar to ads as once the Click Through Rate is high then it means that gogle gets to position it high above in its results.

b) Structure of the site

This sector should be cautiously handled irrespective of whether one is working on a brand new site or whether it is a re- design of an already existing site. This is because, the site structure usually influence the usability, rankings as well as conversions in a huge way.However, it all begins with efficient planning as it always ends up doing wonders whenever expansion of the line of products need to be done since it easens the procedure. In addition, one should use a tool that goes by the name Lucid Chart in order to work on coming up with a chart of all information contained in a website's archives. The ultimate result that should be obtained after this is done well is coming up with a flat archives of a your web thereby concluding that the design in use allows all potential users to proceed on from your home page and directly to the product page with much ease. With that at hand, there tends to be much traffic consisting of users flocking the webpage and proceeding on to the home page with the help of internal links. Also, it is worthwhile to ensure that the architecture of the site is still based on keywords of interest without making the procession from the homepage to the product page complicated for search engines as well as esteemed customers. 

c) Internal linking

Internal linking is achieved whenever one links some pages belonging to their own site with other pages within their websites. It is usually important as it tends to permit one to come up with own anchor text that ends up assisting greatly in the ranking for the entire highly positioned keywords sector. Despite the fact that many experts advised site owners to utilize internal linking to the maximum, entangling all pages of your website might arouse suspicion where google might mistake it for being up to something notorious. So, it is advisable to put internal linking to use only in situations that seem natural. Besides, inclusion of many links with pretty much identical anchor text is one thing to keep off as google is on the watch. Website owners should then come up with a sitemap and eventually submit it to google in order for it to tour through each and every page of the website as well as indexing each individual page. 

d) Determining usability of the site

Once an e-commerce site receives many customers' visits, we then say that the site has great usability. Usability is ensured by easening the steps that customers are subjected to following for a complete navigation of the site. Also, provision of a faster way that customers are able to communicate directly to you for questions and clarifications is among the top ways of increasing usability of a particular website. On the other hand, ensuring that your website opens up faster when searched for is a guarantee to much usability by many. Besides, 

e) Checking on the state of the website's mobile version

Nowadays, as technology has advanced, it has brought beneficial changes alongside it. One if it is the capability of purchasing products at the comfort of our places by the help of our phones courtesy of the friendly mobile versions applications of various sites. In the recent past, organizations have had complications with those mobile versions of websites as they usually yield identical content that obviously arouses Search Engine Optimization problems. On the other hand, identical content tampers with the algorithm of google when it comes to ranking. Therefore, it is essential for site owners to ensure that they design their websites by coding sites in order for them to be operational in phones, tablets as well as desktops eliminating the problem of generating many sites. Site owners can buy and get to customize design templates that are readily offered by Themeforest to act as a web developer for their devices.

f) Reviews provided by customers

Reviews provided in regards of a particular product tend to be influential in some kind of way. This is because some people opt to first visit the review section prior making purchases in order to get a taste of the level of customer's satisfaction after utilization of the same products. On the other hand, a large amount of reviews means that there is a huge amount of content while frequent reviews tends to make an illusion of much content. So, it is advisable that site owners avail reviews from customers as this would accelerate the e-commerce conversion rates. One way of obtaining reviews from customers is by emailing them inquiring whether the products of interest were delivered on good condition and if they are in need of assistance; later on one may proceed to requesting the customers to leave behind comments on the products.

g) Rich snippets

This refers to HTML coded bits that send messages to search engines communicating essential information that searchers ought to comprehend about one’s site prior seeing it. Besides, when people get to see images pertaining to a certain products they are interested in, they are tempted to click on it for viewing and who knows, they may turn out to be customers. Often, rich snippets usually affect website rankings in a huge way. There are several types of snippets including those for authors, events, videos, music albums, reviews as well as for recipes. The procedures of installation of these snippets are as follows: 

• getting into the HTML of each individual page

h) Optimization of URLs

One should focus on ensuring that they maintain effective Ecommerce URLs. Following some of the rules I will indicate below will be helpful in optimization of URLs. Some of them include: inclusion of your primary head keyword, making of the hierarchy as well as keeping of pages clear, keeping off URL parameters and using hyphens to separate words and not underscores while keeping them short.

i) Integration of social media platforms

Social media platforms are of great utility as they helb boost google algorithm. Often, social media signals are being utilized to being about improvement amongst human beings as it engages customers as well as business owners courtesy of sharing and spreading information with ease. Posting social media buttons on one's website usually communicate to google that other people especially customers find one's website as well as the brand very valuable. Therefore, inclusion of social media buttons to grow social media signals to product pages, blog posts as well as the homepage will help boost traffic authority.

 

4. Testing further

Once one has completed working on the on-page Search Engine Optimization they should shift their attention to working on the testing strategy in use. Testing techniques that should be put to place include: utilization of analytics to get informed on the keyword that is converting the highest, finding out of high converting keywords to be included in the SEO strategy by use of PPC campaigns, testing of descriptions as well as metatitles in order to boost click through each and every pages.

 

5. Addition of contents in blogs

As we all know, keyword research plays an important role in establishment of a well strategized Search Engine Optimization process. Since each page is optimized for only one keyword, some of the keywords might fail to fit in that particular site. In order to rank those words, it is essential that they are posted on blogs. However, for blogs, one ought to optimize each individual post for a particular keyword that is not being targeted with major pages of the site. Furthermore, professional writers equipped with a lot of experience ought to be contacted for high quality blogs production as they know how the industry work and also know Search Engine Optimization techniques. Posts that are stuffed with keywords as well as low quality contents will put off readers. Besides, google have a tendency of penalizing website owners that have placed keyword stuffed content in their sites and they never get to earn social signal points as well.

 

6. Building up of the link

Site owners ought to be cautious about getting their sites linked up to other sites of low quality since google tends to penalize owners of such sites. In addition, referral traffic will barely bring about change that boosts the business. Often, low quality sites are usually identified by; sites that have plenty of ads, sites that are stuffed with keywords, as well as those that are composed of contents written so poorly. Also, it is advisable that site owners refrain from obtaining their links from content farms as their sites are usually of low quality. This is because google dislike sites that accept guest posts originating from any source as well as allowing content concerning anything without specifications. Therefore, in order for one to have the best site that draws much traffic authority, they should obtain their links from the best sources that is; the high authority sites. In return, gtools ut to them a something they value after obtaining the link. Some of the things the high authority sites may value include: provision of quotes to a particular story, connection of awesome infographic among other things. Several links that are highly recommendable for e-commerce websites include: broken link building, awesome content, press mentions courtesy of HARO, products reviews courtesy of email among others. Though the link, broken link building is placed in the first place, it does not mean that it is the best. It should be the lowly prioritised by website owners as it is known to be of a relatively lower quality. For clarity and certainty, site owners should avoid the following by building up links: using one kind of anchor text severally, obtaining links from low authority websites as well as linking to one page multiple times. Finally, if by chance one happens to be in a close relationship with owners of websites, they can politely ask for a unique anchor text or rather if not, just remain shush and be thankful for a positive relationship to be maintained.

 

7. Addition of business tips that are local

All business owners should develop the tendency of indicating their names, address, all available locations as well as phone numbers in their websites in order for customers to manage reaching sellers on time with much ease. Also, they should ensure that they give the phone numbers appearing in identical formats in all set up websites. In addition, niche directories that are relevant to the business ought to be included. Where appropriate, keywords that are based on the location should be put to use. Often, google mixes up local content with organic search rankings. Finding out directories that competitors are in should be done by the help of White spark Local Citation finder.

 

8. Utilization of best Search Optimization tools

The choices of the Search Engine Optimization tools usually determine the level of optimization of rankings. Some of the tools recommended by experts include: buzzstream, Citation Labs Broken Link Finder, Mergewords, Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Screaming Frog, Open Site Explorer as well as SEO Moz Keyword Tool. Some of these tools may have been mentioned in the above article and it is clear that they are of great importance. A combination of these tools especially will assist in the shaping up of the Search Engine Optimization procedure. Besides, it may help by availing information that may guide decisions of site owners resulting to awesome rankings.

 

In conclusion, the choice of the SEO strategy that is implemented will influence online businesses greatly. It is therefore advisable for all business owners to optimize their strategies to maximize sales.