Online marketplaces have evolved. It is more than just making money by selling products. In some sense, it is also pushing content for the sake of capturing the audience’s attention.
The only way it can be done organically is by riding the algorithm’s waves and securing the top spots in the SERP. Unlike retail, a product would not sell simply because it is good or because enough people are buying.
eCommerce developers need to understand this key difference. Making a product eye-catching in an eCommerce is not about shiny packaging. It is also about acing the SEO and the development cycle of a website.
This article is all about that. Here are some key tips and tricks that eCommerce developers should remember, as well as some useful SEO tips for eCommerce websites. Therefore, follow along.
Technical SEO Tips for eCommerce Developers to Remember
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a crucial detail that businesses need to understand. The reason behind this is that it helps bring more visibility to the forefront. It makes content more visible to a wider audience. Therefore, it is one of the most important details for eCommerce visibility.
In eCommerce, product listings function similarly to Google ranking. A product might not be at the top of the list because of good reviews. It will only rank because it is popular enough. Therefore, there are certain things that you need to understand.
Here are some of those tips and pointers that you need to know:
Tip #1. Finding The Keyword
The foremost thing that eCommerce developers need to ensure as an eCommerce developer and technical SEO professional is to find the right set of keywords. A keyword is like a bait or a hook that captures the audience’s attention.
Keywords come in many different forms. However, long-tail keywords are more effective because they consist of more than one word. Therefore, they cannot be overlooked that easily.
Therefore, choosing the right keywords and secondary keywords can make a significant difference. As a result, Keyword optimization is ranked the highest on our eCommerce technical SEO checklist.
Tip #2: Unique Description
Do not scrap product descriptions before understanding the essence. As a third-party eCommerce platform, you cannot just scrap descriptions because you want to be ‘unique.’ However, that does not mean that you cannot experiment or make something unique.
In other words, hire a professional product description writer. These professional writers can help you craft a unique product listing. Brief them about the requirement and ask them to craft something attuned for e-commerce, but that is distinctive enough. This also falls under the domain of an eCommerc developer.
The best approach is to make the description more concise and unique. Once that is done, consider integrating it immediately to see the results.
Tip #3: Understand Category Pages
Product descriptions are crucial in the overall context. However, you cannot be stuck on one point. Many marketers and eCommerce developers spend most of their time and focus on the product description pages.
However, you also need to spend some time fixing the category pages. Product category pages reach the buyer even before the product description pages. Therefore, the page needs to be well-optimized.
You should get the product description page right as it is a part of the eCommerce technical SEO checklist. There is a high chance that you will gradually see better results.
Tip #4: Add Optimized Images
A product listing would look barren without proper images. This is because images play a role in ranking a specific product. However, that does not mean that you can add just any picture to the list.
The images need to be proper, like the keywords you choose. Here are some of the general markers that you need to understand if you are wondering what an ‘optimized’ image stands for:
- The image format must be web-friendly, such as JPEG. This is the best choice since it goes well with different devices. Hence, you do not have to worry about compatibility.
- The images must be compressed. In other words, the overall size of each image must not exceed 200 kb. This ensures quick and streamlined loading.
- The image(s) must have an alt-text. Alt-tet enables crawlers to flag images, thereby improving overall ranking. Hence, having important use cases.
Remembering these factors makes your images more optimized and better geared towards higher rankings.
Tip #5: Developing An Internal Linking Strategy
Internal linking is a crucial SEO strategy that enhances organic traffic. Therefore, create content based on the products you are selling, including links that can automatically direct people to your eCommerce website.
Every time someone clicks on the internal link of your eCommerce website, they will be automatically directed to your website. This is =great for increasing organic traffic and improving the overall DA and DR of your page.
Internal linking is also great because it creates a homogenous ecosystem of products and content. Therefore, improving SEO metrics.
Tip #6: Make It Fun
An eCommerce website need not be all transactional and cold. It can also be innovative and fun to work with. Yes, you can follow the first five pointers down to their very last letters. However, you will not see results if your website lacks style.
By style, we mean something unique. Something that other eCommerce website lacks. The best way to leverage this is by creating a well-backed and complementary social media campaign that adds quirk and uniqueness.
Honestly, the consumer has no idea what they want. This is your job. Therefore, make your eCommerce website more engaging to increase sales and drive conversions.
Tip #7
Lastly, take active steps to improve website speed. The website speed is a crucial detail. The website can do everything right. Still, it can lose visitors over time if the site’s speed is lacking.
This is a very practical side of things. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes for a moment. You are planning to buy something, but the website you want to use is slow and unresponsive. If you don’t want the same effect, then lose excess weight and make the website more responsive. Here are three things that you can do:
- Reduce the size of the image files to keep them under 200kb.
- Reduce the coding complexity of a webpage and keep it both linear and simple.
- Reduce lazy loading to make a page less data intensive.
What To Expect Going Forward?
Going forward, AI will be one of the biggest contributors to the ranking of product pages. As time passes, more and more eCommerce websites will employ more robust AI modules.
These modules can not only make a page more engaging but can also improve the ranking of a page. Therefore, the future of e-commerce is closely tied to AI advancement. Hence, seeing how things unfurl will be quite interesting.
