Most small Ecommerce businesses develop an obsession with increasing traffic, and smart Ecommerce SEO is always on their minds. This typically leads to a decision to begin experimenting with various paid solutions, only to discover that despite spending money, no real progress has been made.
Prior to a decade ago, the fixation with SEO was understandable and really the only aspect an Ecommerce website needed to consider. However, those days are long gone.
Many Ecommerce websites now get their visitors through social media, local queries, Amazon, Etsy, or eBay, or because they wrote viral content. We now live in an age where a high Google ranking is merely a huge bonus, as there are so many more ways to attract potential consumers to your site. However, what a huge bonus it can be if you target a specific niche and are at the top of Google!
Smart Ecommerce SEO
There are still SEO techniques that work on search engines, but you can also use these techniques to reach potential customers in other ways. Writing lengthy descriptions with pertinent keywords on each product page is an example of a site-wide optimization strategy. Obtaining backlinks from pertinent websites is effective both on and off search engines; however, social media is by far the easiest way to obtain backlinks because users "like" your posts. Google has changed immensely and there is no doubt that if you do what is best for humans you will be doing what is best for Google; their algorithm has dramatically changed to put content for humans front and center of its results pages.
However, there is one incredibly important part of SEO for search engines that should be the primary focus of any small business, as it will get you ranked on search engines and perform equally well outside of search engines.
A small Ecommerce business must cease believing it will dominate the "big" keywords; if you make and sell gifts, you will never rank first on Google for the term "gifts" - how do I know?
If you conduct a Google search for "gifts" right now, you will find that you are competing with 7,800,000,000 other pages.
But …
If you conduct a Google search right now for "gifts for 3-year-old boys who love superheroes," you will discover that the 7,775,000,000 competing pages are no longer competing at all.
And …
Which of these searches is more likely to bring someone who wants to buy gifts for a 3-year-old boy who loves superheroes to your website, if you have products that fit this description?
It is entirely possible for anyone with only a handful of products to advertise them online in a multitude of ways.
Go for positioning based on what you actually sell, if you are a coffee shop with gluten-free cakes then target “coffee shop with gluten-free cakes” and not coffee where you will never even get close to the unpaid section of the results page.
The next time you visit Google and Amazon, you will find that they are a treasure trove of keyword ideas, as both Google and Amazon will provide you with countless suggestions. Amazon, which will likely be one of your competitors, will concentrate on products, and Google will give you information-based keyword suggestions.
You must employ the same strategy on search engines as Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and all of social media platforms do. Do not compete with Wikipedia for the “big” terms, the more specific your products are, the more they will align with the purchasing signals used by potential consumers.
Someone who searches for "jewelry" is not sending a buying signal, but someone who searches for "jewelry for a 40-year-old woman who likes dogs" is!
If you don't target those who are sending out a buying signal, you may receive a large number of visitors, but they will then move on to other sites, until they narrow down what they are looking for. With niche keywords you are precisely what they are looking for and they will probably not bother looking elsewhere.
Smart Ecommerce SEO
Selecting the appropriate keywords for your store.
Currently, your list of keywords is likely quite extensive. So, how do you filter it down and concentrate on the most important keywords? Start with a few essential elements.
Volume. The greater the volume of searches, the greater the prospective traffic to your website. Ahrefs provides volume data, as do free applications such as Google Keyword Planner.
Competition. The less competition there is, the more likely it is that you will rank for the keyword. Once more, Ahrefs provides keyword difficulty/competition (KD).
Page authority (PA) and domain authority (DA) indicate how challenging it would be to rank above these organic results. The greater the number, the more challenging it will be to unseat the result.
Overall, you seek keywords with high volume, low competition, and high intent.
The key is how pertinent are your product or category pages to the search term? This is a major classification factor that is frequently overlooked. Stick to keywords that your products can legitimately fulfill.
You cannot deceive Google.
You should focus on keywords with commercial intent. Typically, intent can be determined simply by examining a keyword. For instance, if you own a coffee shop, "coffee shop with cakes" or "coffee" is a more appropriate search term.
Which of these searchers is likely to make a purchase on your site? The former, naturally. A coffee establishment sells more than just coffee, and it is nearly impossible to determine what someone is really looking for when they conduct a search for "coffee."