Onpage SEO Strategies for eCommerce Sites

Performing keyword research correctly applies to every website no matter the industry. 

The makings of a good keyword

When we talk about keyword research, you need to check these things:

• Keyword difficulty - how hard it is to rank organically for the search term. The higher the KD, the harder it will be to rank higher 
• Search volume - the average number of monthly searches for a given keyword over a 12-month period.

There are 4 main types of keywords: 

• Informational - searchers are looking for information
• Transactional - searchers are ‘looking to buy’
• Commercial - searchers are investigating products, brands or services
• Navigational - searchers are looking to find a page or a website

To determine keyword intent - you can simply use SEMrush’s Keyword Magic tool. 

Look under the “intent” section and you will be able to see the terms highlighted:

• C - Commercial
• N - Navigational
• I - Informational
• T - Transactional

This is not just the only way, you can even go to “Organic research” or “Domain overview” to find the keywords by their “intent.”

Choosing the right keyword may look complicated, but it's actually pretty easy.

You need to look out for keywords with:

• High search volume
• Low keyword difficulty
• You can create content related to that keyword
• Use a mix of long-tail and head keywords

For a tutorial on eCommerce keyword research, we highly recommend you study this guide: What are the best types of eCommerce Keywords to Target for SEO?

Google gives huge importance to E-A-T.

Which stands for  Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. 

If you read the Search Quality Rater Guidelines document, you will find that it is referenced almost 130 times.

Even though your website is not for Google, it is for your users. 

The best way to meet your user's needs is by understanding their requirements. 

This is where E-A-T comes in, if you want your pages to rank, the content needs to be:

• Reliable - provides accurate information and delivers value to the reader
• Useful - contains reliable information 
• Readable - content is written for humans and broken by relevant images, headings

Source: Searcher Quality Evaluator Guidelines So once you have done your keyword research, you can create content matching user intent. For example, let’s say you sell video games, consoles and pop culture merchandise, your website will have dedicated:

• Product pages
• Category pages
• Blog pages
• FAQs

Your content strategy would be focused on:

• product pages related to gaming consoles, merchandise offered by different brands like Marvel, Disney and DC
• pages for bestselling games for Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo
• Pages for PC games and console games
• Reviews and FAQ section for different products
• How-to guides for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo

And so forth, the list can go on and on.

The main idea is to create content matching the buyer's intent.

And creating quality content, blogs, product descriptions, shipping details, returns and refunds, etc gives Google the signal that your eCommerce store is trustworthy and you have the expertise and authority in the subject matter. View our content marketing guide for eCommerce stores here.

Tip:

1. Use the keywords and their variation in page title, description, page title, URL, headings, subheadings and first 100 words of the copy.
2. Use the keyword in the image file name and image alt text
3. Often people focus on optimising product pages and forget the category pages. Our advice is to not ignore the category pages and focus on using the right keywords, images or other visual assets to make these pages engaging.
4. Include call-to-actions

Using high-quality visual assets - product images, videos and infographics make your page engaging.

Your customers will rely on images and videos to understand your products.

When working with images, make sure:

• The filename contains the keywords you are targeting
• Use compressed images  -  next-gen image formats like WEBP or AVIF take up less space and load faster. There are a variety of free and paid tools to change image format and compress images.
• Enlist a professional photographer to get beautiful pictures and showcase your products aesthetically and evoke positive emotions
• Use alt text to explain the purpose of the image
• You convey value to the user

When working with videos, make sure:

• Use mp4 format
• Compress videos files before uploading them or upload them to Youtube and embed it on the website
• Select the right video size ensuring the videos are suitable for all screen sizes

The title tag defines the title of the web page. 

It is displayed in the SERPs and is one of the most important ranking factors.

It is also known as page title and meta title. For example, in the image below, you can see the URL, title tag and meta description.

The title tag incentivises the users to click on your website.

How to write engaging title tags?

• Use your primary keywords in the title tag
• Avoid using more than 60 characters in the title tag
• Write unique titles for all pages
• Use content that makes the users click
• Avoid keyword stuffing

Headings (h1, h2 or h3) are used to organise information conveying the hierarchy and key concepts.

They are used to guide the reader and present information sequentially.

<h1> is the title of the page explaining what the content is about. You can only have one H1 on a page

<h2> are headings used to present the main concepts of your content. You can have multiple H2s on the page.

<h3>  is sub- headings and further breaks up the content under the <h2> 

<h4> <h5> <h6> if you need to divide the content into more sections, use h4, h5 and h6 tags.

When using the tags, don't skip the hierarchy. You need to include all tags sequentially and can’t skip a level in the hierarchy.

A meta description is the summary of the page that you can see in search results. Think of it as an elevator pitch for your content. You get only 160 characters to sell your content as best as you can. 

It is the first thing a user will see, and writing a good copy is crucial to get people clicking. 

Tips for writing effective meta descriptions:

• Keep it under 160 characters
• Use the primary keywords
• Communicate the value to your reader
• Use active voice to persuade users to take action and click on your content
• Use unique meta descriptions for all your pages
• Ensure your meta description matches the content of the page

Internal links are the process of using hyperlinks to other important pages of the website.

While external links take your users to other domains, internal links keep the user on your website for longer. Internal links are beneficial because:

• They encourage users to spend more time on your website
• Improves the indexability and crawlability 
• Helps search engines understand your website
• Makes it easier for users to find related products and information related to the products
• Passes authority from your high-ranking pages to your new pages

When you use internal links, make sure to use keywords in your anchor text.

For a full guide on building external links for your ecommerce store visit this page here.

Use SEO-friendly URLs to make it easier for humans and bots. The best practice for URL SEO is to have a:

• Well-defined site architecture
• Using hyphens between words instead of underscore, spaces or other characters
• Use lowercase letter
• Avoid using URL parameters and dynamic URLs
• Use keywords in your URL

For example:

This one is a search-friendly URL 

https://www.example.com/category/product-name

While this one is not

https://www.example.com/index.php?product=121323