Your new E-commerce store is up and running but still no conversions!/no conversions yet!

Most common SEO mistakes that E-commerce sites make

Ecommerce websites aren’t like any other websites but store runners often forget the difference. They forget to strategize design and content to optimize their website. A lot of store runners make these must-avoid common E-commerce websites:

No product description

A lot of online stores make the mistake of not writing an eloquent product description. Product pages with no text description are at a high risk of getting lost among the millions of webpages without an impressive first-page rank. Most e-commerce websites have the same collection so it’s really product description that sets a product apart. It can be persuasive and clear so the buyer gets the help he/she needs while making the purchase decision.

Lifting product description directly from the manufacturer

If you are using the same product descriptions that your manufacturers mail you, you are taking your website one step closer to obscurity. Manufacturers supply to multiple e-commerce websites and send the same product description. If you don’t have the description rewritten, you risk plagiarism. A lot of websites make the same mistake of posting the same product descriptions, costing them search engine ranks due to duplicate content.

Follow the simple rule: Create Unique Content if you want better ranks and higher visibility.

Not heeding the search demand for product pages

Another mistake professionals make is that they ignore the demand and search keywords when writing headlines and page content (product description, title pages, etc). This practice helps promote products that are most in-demand. Marketers should use model numbers and brand names in title tags and headings without stuffing the page with repetitive keywords.

No Product Reviews

Positive or even moderately rated reviews are great for e-commerce websites. Mostly because they are free content that’s unique, authentic, original and they help persuade buyers to make better decisions. In fact, according to BigCommerce, 69% of online shoppers voted in favor of getting more reviews from E-commerce sites.
So, marketers can introduce a free-shipping or freebie for a review or other incentive systems to encourage reviews.

Duplicate Page Title and Title Tags

Marketers face a tough time creating unique page titles and title tags when selling numerous products from a single brand. Unique key phrases help you rank higher with better traffic. The best tip is to understand how customers refer to brands and use their language.

No speaking URLs

Speaking URLs are actually keyword-friendly, reader-friendly, keyword-friendly and don’t look spammy. Marketers should use relevant URLs complete with keywords so they are more searchable.

Plagiarized/Duplicate Content

If you are writing the same content as others, what new and of value are you offering? Your readers need to derive information that is valuable and relevant content. It’s best to trim down your plagiarized content as much as possible. E-commerce websites that follow a sharp and original content strategy tend to rank higher.

Non Indexing of Products

E-commerce websites follow a complex hierarchy of categories and subcategories that results in product pages not getting indexed. The simple solution is to have a sitemap.

404 Errors

E-commerce websites regularly update their inventory, pages and sometimes delete pages with out of stock products too. When pages are deleted, products get taken off the website, product categories or sub-categories are changed, links become dysfunctional and the server shows a 404 message. This is frustrating for the buyer who will immediately switch to another website on receiving the 404 messages.

Marketers can update the out of stock pages and mention redirects URLs or replace the older products with new products to avoid losing the customer. New updates will also help marketers retain higher traffic and use it better for other pages.

No Product Category Text

Product Category text may not be a dealbreaker but it is important. Category based keywords help buyers search for products without knowing which product do they exactly want to buy.

How do we bridge the gap?

E-commerce SEO is not like any other SEO. It’s highly technical and specific. Since we target multiple web pages for products, it takes a lot of planning. We review the current website, its design, navigation, and content to examine how SEO friendly is it. We propose suitable changes to the website to make it more SEO friendly to improve traffic and rankings. Once we are done evaluating the website, we move on to the final battlefield and follow these strategies and steps:

Information Accumulation

We begin the action with information accumulation. We get our clients to fill customized questionnaires to list out their competitors, targeted location and other necessary information. Based on this information, we perform our research on the online trends for the specific location and devise a content strategy.

Keyword phrase

The next step is to identify short term and long term keywords. When we start looking for keywords, we don’t make any changes to your website as much of the hard work depends on key phrases and words. We perform extensive research online and put the most trusted tools to work to list out relevant keywords and key phrases.

Client Review

We send our keyword lists along with website reviews to the client to get his/her input on the evaluation. Once the proposed changes and plan of action are greenlit, we start working on the keywords based on the client’s short and long-term expectations.

Once we have made an exhaustive list of keywords, we start implementing it on the homepage, meta descriptions, page titles, title tags, product descriptions, etc.

Optimization

The final stage of the SEO process is optimization.
Product pages are especially important. They are more likely to rank higher for specific search phrases and keywords like men’s running shoes or puma men’s black running shoes. We focus on optimizing every single product page as long-tail keywords like ‘Adidas women blue running shoes’ will be used on products but not the homepage.

E-commerce is just as much about information and presentation as it is about customer’s intention to buy and seller’s persuasion skills. We ensure that every page is optimized with accurate information that’s keyword-rich and best describes the product listed.

We don’t only optimize content but also target images with alt text and ensure they assist the website to generate higher traffic.

On-Page Optimization

Through On-Page Optimization, we work on webpages to rank them higher with relevant content and HTML Source code. Techniques we use in our on-page optimization strategy include:

• Initial Ranking Report
• URL Mapping Report
• Page Content Optimization
• Meta Tag (Title, Description, Keywords)
• W3C Validation
• Webmaster & Google Analytics Setup
• H Tags (H1, h2, h3, h4, h5)
• Keywords Analysis Report
• Deep Linking
• Image Optimization (Alt Tags)
• Content Duplicacy Check
• Canonicalization (The process of choosing the best URL when choices are available and redirecting them to the same)
• Robots.txt file
• XML Sitemap
• External Link Check

Off-Page optimization

Our Strategies aren’t just restricted to the website. We work outside the website too and follow a tactical plan to boost traffic and rankings.

We build backlinks to boost ranks with quality content, provide content marketing services as needed along with

• Article Marketing
• Quality Directory marketing
• Classified Submission
• PR Submission
• Blogging
• Pay Per Click And Other Google Ads
• Social Media Marketing
• Local Business Listing
• Search Engine Submission
• Video Promotions
• Email Marketing

Navigation Optimization

We also integrate keywords with page categories and devise navigation chart in such a manner that it emanates user-friendliness and attracts engagement.

If you want a visitor to really stay on your website and explore more, you need to make navigation as quick and easy as possible. We ensure that it is designed to prevent confusion among visitors and leads them right where they want to go.

We target minimizing the bounce rate by ensuring easy navigation so visitors can enjoy their shopping experience.

Content Production

According to Rapt Media, 63% of consumers mentioned that they thought of brands that offered relevant content more positively.

So, as part of our e-commerce SEO plan, we provide high quality, original, engaging and valuable content for the website and off-page optimization tactics.

Our team of experienced SEO writers follows an exhaustive content marketing strategy to minimize the bounce rate and maintain high traffic.

Our focus is not just bringing more people to the website but also boosting conversion and engagement…

We follow a personalized content strategy that we devise keeping audience taste, keyword research, domain/industry-specific content and search trends, etc in mind.

Blogging is the go-to solution for many webmasters and we follow a similar strategy by posting consistent, entertaining, inspiring and educating blog posts. Content published as part of our SEO plan is well optimized with keywords that we integrate naturally.

We believe consistency and quality are the key ranking high on search engines as the leading search engine Google values content that imparts value. So, we formulate a research-backed content strategy to avoid spamming.

We use keywords as subjects and topics and develop high-quality, plagiarism-free, impressive and accurate content. We generally produce articles, press releases, articles, ebooks, white papers, case studies, etc with strong Calls to action.

Along with quality content, we also devise a visual strategy for the website to ensure that it’s user-friendly, visually appealing and retains visitor’s attention for long.

Reports and analytics

We present comprehensive reports every Friday along with separate monthly reports and a final report.

We conduct analytics check regularly and keep an eye on how the website is performing with distinct strategies we use. Based on the digital insights, we formulate our strategy and further make changes to better suit the market and changing trends.

We deliver real results within 45 days of initiating our SEO campaign. It’s not just a promise, it’s the truth.

We have delivered results, amassed our client’s conversions and with our tactical strategies and we will continue to deliver.

Trust us with your website and we won’t disappoint you.