Ecommerce On-page SEO ensures that every visible (on-page) element on your website is optimized for users as well as for search engines. It is critically important for ecommerce store owners to improve the user experience because “What is seen is sold.”
With an industry experience of 12+ years, we have personally witnessed the impact of strategic on-page optimization on sales and brand visibility. Based on our knowledge, observations, and industry trends, we have compiled all the information about on-page SEO in this guide. The article covers every on-page SEO aspect that each ecommerce owner should know and implement in order to shine in the search results as well as in the eyes of the visitors.
Let’s explore more in the article.
What is Ecommerce On-page SEO?
Ecommerce On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing on-page elements of the website that helps it rank higher in the search results and attract the right audience. With the spotlight on the visible elements, ecommerce on-page SEO involves optimizing everything from keywords, product titles, descriptions, URLs, alt tags, and images to internal linking, user experience, and website content, etc.
How Can Ecommerce Store Owners Benefit from On-page SEO?
If you run an online ecommerce store and neglect on-page SEO, here’s what you might miss out on:
Higher Conversion Rates
Optimizing your product pages with relevant keywords, compelling descriptions, and clear CTAs (Call to Action) can lead to higher conversion rates by attracting more qualified visitors to your ecommerce store.
Better User Experience
When you optimize on-page elements of your website, such as product images, visual content, internal links, mobile responsiveness, etc., it collectively contributes to a positive user experience. This results in satisfied customers who are more likely to return and make repeat purchases.
Increased Visibility
On-page SEO for ecommerce ensures that your product and category pages are optimized with relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand your content, helping your website to rank higher in search engines.
On-page SEO Elements for Ecommerce Stores
Here is a list of on-page SEO elements along with tested strategies we have used for various successful ecommerce brands. We believe that every online store owner must consider these tips while performing On-page SEO for their ecommerce websites:
Keyword Research with Implementation Tips
Ecommerce Keyword Research is the most critical step in the on-page SEO campaign for ecommerce websites. Think of it as the starting line for your online store’s success. If you get this step wrong, you might lose your precious visitors.
Comprehensive keyword research is about discovering words that people search for, the ones that are both popular and easy to rank for, and most importantly, lead to conversions.
You can discover the target keywords for your ecommerce store using keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs. You can also do your own detective search manually on Google or check out what’s trending on Amazon. You can use tools like Amazon Keyword Tool to see what shoppers are looking for and what words they’re using. By combining different keyword research methods, you can ensure your online store connects with people in a way that matters.
Here are some tips that you must follow while using the discovered keywords:
- Consider the search intent: If you run an eCommerce store, make sure your target keywords have a commercial search intent rather than navigational or informational. To figure out the search intent, try typing a keyword into a search engine or a keyword research tool. Look at the types of pages that show up in the results. If you see a lot of product pages, that means people are probably searching for that keyword when they want to buy something, so you should use it on your product page. If you see more blog pages, it indicates that the keyword is better suited for such pages.
- Avoid Keyword Cannibalization: Keyword cannibalization happens when a website has multiple pages targeting the same keyword and search intent. This can confuse search engines, making it harder for any of the pages to rank in search results. So, to address this problem, you can either apply 301 redirects to the original page or add modifiers (like ‘best,’ ‘latest,’ or ‘new’) to your core keywords to make them more specific.
- Place Keywords Strategically: Optimizing on-page SEO elements involves strategically incorporating target keywords throughout the ecommerce website. We advise you to incorporate important keywords into your page titles, headers, sub headers, paragraph copy, product descriptions, image file names, alt text, meta titles, and URLs.
- Enter Complete Details: To ensure an effortless shopping experience for your visitors, we advise you to enter all the essential details on your product page. This includes shipping costs, user reviews, return policy, size guide, etc. Because if customers have to switch between the pages to find additional information, it increases the likelihood of them leaving the website.
Complete product details and additional information
- Optimize Images to Add Keywords: It’s a good practice to rename image files with descriptive keywords before uploading them to your website. Also, make sure that the alt text includes relevant keywords to improve accessibility and SEO.
- Incorporate Keywords into Product URLs: Optimize your product URLs to include keywords that accurately describe the product. Short, keyword-rich, and descriptive URLs help improve the SEO in addition to enhancing user experience and click-through rates.
Image alt text with relevant keywords
- Regularly Update Your Content and Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Keep your content fresh and updated to maintain and boost search engine rankings. Make sure to timely update seasonal sales and special offers to meet customer expectations. Also, update your keyword strategy with these changing seasons and festivals. However, while integrating keywords, make sure to avoid keyword stuffing, as it might lead to penalties from search engines.
Fresh and Updated Content of a Website
Category Page Optimization
As an ecommerce store owner, your main focus might naturally be drawn toward optimizing the homepage and product pages. However, it’s essential not to overlook the significance of category pages within your catalog, as it directly impacts search engine rankings. Also, if your category page fails to catch visitors’ attention, they may never proceed to explore your products.
Therefore, by optimizing your category pages, you can guide potential customers through your site, increasing the chances of engagement and conversions.
Here’s how you can optimize your category pages for your e-commerce website:
- Plan Your Site Structure: Take time to evaluate how your products can be categorized logically and hierarchically. You can use a mind map or a simple spreadsheet to do this. While designing your site structure keep the future expansion in mind. Leave room to add more categories and subcategories as your ecommerce website and product range grows.
- Add Written Content: It’s a good practice to have some written content on your category pages for better performance in the search engines. When it comes to displaying this content, the focus should still remain on the products. A practical approach for ecommerce sites is to include a few lines of text above the products to ensure that the content is easily accessible to visitors while they browse through the products.
Written Content Above the Category Page
- Categorize Your Products: Properly categorize and filter products on your ecommerce website to ensure a hassle-free user experience. This is important because when visitors land on a page that doesn’t relate to their search or category, they are likely to leave the site quickly, resulting in higher bounce rates. In addition to this, we advise you to prioritize popular and high-value products on the first page of each category to increase visibility and chances of conversion.
- Use the Filters Option: Incorporate “filters” into the category pages, especially if your ecommerce website has a large product catalog. Filters allow users to refine the product search based on specific criteria such as size, color, and length, enhancing the user experience (UX) and helping them easily navigate through different categories. However, while doing so, carefully consider which filters are most relevant, effective, and helpful for the visitors.
Filters on an ecommerce website
URLs for Category Page
You can choose between two types of category page URL structures for your ecommerce website:
1. Flat URL Structure: Flat URL structures for category pages are simple and straightforward URLs that are ideal for small to medium-sized ecommerce stores. These are easy to navigate as there are no levels of organization within the URL structure, and all pages are located at the same hierarchical level (without any subdirectories).
For example:
- https://www.xyz.com/men (General category)
- https://www.xyz.com/sunglasses/men (Specific category)
2. Deep URL Structure: In a deep URL structure, URL pages are organized into multiple levels of subdirectories, creating a hierarchical arrangement. Deep URL structures are often useful for larger websites that have several categories and subcategories.
For example:
- https://www.xyz.com/women/clothing/formal-dresses/black-dresses/
- https://www.example.com/men/shoes/sports-shoes/running-shoes/
Product Page Optimization
The heart of any ecommerce website lies in its products and services because that’s what customers are looking to buy. Typically, it’s recommended to have around 1000 words on each product page and include your keyword in the description about five times. Besides the keywords, it is also important to optimize other product page elements in order to align with the user’s intentions and demands.
Since you are on a quest to optimize product pages for your ecommerce store, it’s essential to approach it from the customer’s perspective and address key questions and viewpoints they may have, such as:
- Does your product description effectively cover all the features?
- Have you added a proper size guide chart?
- Have you added the necessary CTAs?
- Is the navigation smooth and easy?
- Does it cover all the information on a single page, or does it require the visitor to switch to other pages for additional details?
- Have you added directions for use, compatibility, etc., if you sell electronic devices?
- Does your URL match your product and does the URL describe the product?
- Is there a need to add a FAQs section?
Optimized Product Page with Complete Details
Additionally, we advise you to conduct a competitor analysis and examine the product pages of popular brands in your niche. This can fill you with ideas for writing your product copy. While evaluating, you must also focus on the following elements:
- The color theme, page design, and layout.
- The font used.
- The number and placement of CTAs.
- The number of product images and videos.
- Do they offer multilingual websites?
URLs for Product Pages
Product URLs should be descriptive, simple and must guide the users on your website. You can include keywords in your product URL, wherever possible. An optimized product URL should look something like this:
“https://www.xyz.com/category/subcategory/color-product”
Blog Page Optimization
With a blog page on your ecommerce website, you can showcase your expertise, answer queries, elaborate your personal experience, and connect with your audience on a deeper level. The best part is that it offers a great platform to promote your products in a subtle and informative way. Plus, by adding popular keywords to blog articles, you can attract more visits from search engines.
Blog page of an eCommerce website
Here are some suggestions to optimize blog pages for eCommerce stores:
- Avoid Grammatical Errors: First and foremost, make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors in your blogs.
- Be Interactive: Make your blogs interactive. Keep the tone conversational and let the words do the talking to build a connection with your readers.
- Answer Questions: Your writings should add value to your readers’ lives. So, make sure you answer appropriate questions through the blog section.
- Teach Something New: Help the readers learn new things. Channel your innovative ideas through the blog. For example: if you run a fashion store, you can write about “5 bizarre fashion trends to follow this season” or “Solidify your fashion game with these color-blocking schemes,” etc.
- Add Internal Links: While writing your blogs, naturally add internal links to your products and categories. This way, you can lead the visitors to buy relevant products they are reading about.
- Add Visuals: Visuals can add life to your blog. Ensure to add high-quality, relevant and original images in the blog section.
- Conduct Regular Audits: Conduct regular ecommerce SEO audits to ensure your content is relevant, updated and error-free.
Interactive About Us Section
Having an interactive “About Us” page or section on your website is a way to build a meaningful connection with your customers. It should be more than just a space to share company details because it’s where your visitors get to know your brand on a personal level. From learning about the causes you support to understanding the story and motivation behind your brand, it’s an opportunity for people to connect with the faces, artisans, and hard work behind your products. By sharing your journey and values, you’re not just selling a product, in fact, you’re inviting customers to be part of something bigger, cultivating loyalty and trust along the way.
Interactive and Optimized About Us Page
Internal Links Optimization
Internal linking is an intelligent strategy that keeps the visitors engaged and glued to your ecommerce website for longer durations. Additionally, internal links also help search engines to crawl to your website better.
For example, imagine a customer lands on a product page on your website but does not quite like the product for some reason. There’s a risk they might leave, right? But here’s where you can turn the tables around and give your customers reasons to stick around by adding internal links.
Guide the visitors to other products by adding links to “related products,” “similar products,” “you may also like,” “customers also loved,” “recently viewed,” etc. Customers really appreciate the extra efforts you put into meeting their needs and making their shopping experience hassle-free.
Internal Links on Ecommerce Website
Here are some suggestions to optimize Internal Links for eCommerce stores:
- Add Relevant Links: Make it a habit to strictly add only the relevant and necessary links.
- Include Images: You very well know the importance of visuals as an ecommerce store owner. Add relevant product images with the links to engage the users.
- Have Different Anchor Texts: Make sure to have different anchors for different links. In other words, different links should not have the same anchor text.
- Select Relevant Anchor Text: When you select the anchor text for internal links, make sure it matches the keyword goals of the page you’re linking to. For example, if you are linking to a page featuring a “3-seater sofa,” using the anchor text “3-seater sofa” helps Google understand that page’s content and purpose.
Image Optimization
Images are the star element of ecommerce websites. Image optimization is a critical step whether you own an apparel, jewelry, or electronics store because images directly impact your website traffic, rankings, and conversions.
Here are some suggestions to optimize Images for eCommerce stores:
- Add High-quality Images: When selecting images for your ecommerce website, prioritize high quality. Your images should be clear, sharp, and effectively showcase every aspect of the product. Ensure they have a high resolution to provide customers with a detailed view of what they’re purchasing.
- Optimize Alt Text: Alt text serves as a description of an image, appearing in place of the image if it fails to load. It is also crucial for visually impaired users who rely on screen readers. It is advised to keep your alt text descriptive, clear, concise, relevant, and short to provide a complete understanding of the image to users and search engines. Also, it is a good practice to include your target keyword in the alt text.
- Use the Right Image Format: The right image format can reduce the image size, leading to faster loading times. The best image formats for ecommerce are JPG, PNG, and WebP. We advise you to use JPG for colorful images, PNG for those with transparent backgrounds, and WebP to get the best of both worlds, as it offers excellent compression without sacrificing image quality.
- Compress The Images: Compress the images to make them smaller to attain a faster-loading website. The technique is to aim for a balance between file size and image quality. You can use online tools like JPEG.io, Compressnow, TinyPNG, etc., to compress images for your ecommerce store.
- Add Multi-angle Images: Showcase all the angles of your product to help customers understand each angle, corner, and perspective of the product.
- Try Three-Dimensional View: You can also add three-dimensional images to give visitors a real-time look of your products. You can take a look at Apple’s website to get an idea.
- Make Your Homepage Images Appealing: Many visitors arrive at your homepage to simply browse the products. Therefore, showcasing your top-selling products with clear, high-quality photos on the homepage is a smart move. These images should highlight the best features of your brand and products, keeping the visitors engaged with your website.
High-quality Home Page Images
- Add Relevant Images: The images you add should be relevant and must exactly match the product description and specifications. They should accurately represent your product in every detail, from its size and color to its shape and features.
- Keep the Style Consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to your website’s images. From style and color scheme to lighting and tone, keep everything uniform to create a seamless and visually appealing experience for users.
Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Title tags and meta descriptions are a short but impactful element of eCommerce on-page SEO. When someone searches for information, your meta title and description are the first things they see, that’s why it’s essential to make them count. Google bolds the words in the meta description that match the searcher’s query, increasing the likelihood of clicks and conversions. Therefore, you must craft compelling title tags and meta descriptions to improve search engine rankings and attract more visitors.
Optimized Title Tag and Meta Description
User Experience
User experience (UX) is everything for ecommerce stores. It draws that thin line between customers happily browsing and quickly bouncing off your site. Good UX keeps customers coming back for more and can turn one-time shoppers into loyal customers. So, when your website is easy to navigate, has a clear website architecture, and offers a seamless shopping and checkout experience, it’s a star in your visitors’ eyes.
Here are some suggestions to optimize User Experience for eCommerce stores:
- Have Prominent CTAs: The CTAs such as “buy now,” “add to cart,” “visit us,” “contact us,” etc. should be prominent, clear, easily accessible, and evenly distributed throughout the website.
- Add Product Comparison Features: To add to a seamless user experience, consider including product comparison features for items with multiple models or if you sell the same product with different brands, similar to what you see on Amazon. You can further add related products or product recommendations to ease your customers’ shopping experience.
Product Comparison for Better User Experience
- Quick Access to Reviews: Reviews are very powerful for ecommerce websites. Most shoppers read reviews before purchasing a product; therefore, it’s essential to make them easily accessible. Ensure that product reviews are prominently displayed and easily accessible, sparing your customers from unnecessary hard work.
Easily Accessible Reviews for Optimized User Experience
- Search box, Wishlist and Shopping Bag: Make it easy for your website visitors to find what they’re looking for by including a prominent ‘search box.” This way, they can quickly search for specific products without any trouble. Also, consider adding a “favorites or wishlist feature” where customers can save items for later, and a “shopping bag” icon for easy access to their chosen products during checkout. These simple elements enhance the user experience, making shopping on your ecommerce store a snap of a finger.
Search box, Wishlist, and Shopping Bag Elements for Seamless User Experience
- Use Breadcrumb Navigation: Breadcrumbs are typically displayed as a trail of clickable links at the top of a webpage that helps users navigate the ecommerce website. Incorporating breadcrumbs navigation in your ecommerce website for a smooth user experience.
- Font Style and Font Size: Ensure to use an appropriate and uniform font across your website. Take care of the formatting options such as bold, italicized, or underlined text. Also, take care of the font size throughout. Choose fonts and styles that match the aesthetics and visual appeal of your ecommerce website.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, on-page SEO for ecommerce stores is an extremely crucial step in the SEO journey. We believe that “What catches the eye, fills the cart,” which highlights the importance of on-page SEO because it helps optimize website elements visible to the customers. From captivating product descriptions to smooth navigation and seamless user experience, every on-page SEO element enhances the chances of conversion and customer satisfaction.
However, optimizing on-page SEO elements for ecommerce stores all by yourself can feel like a daunting task. That’s where our Ecommerce SEO services step in. With our proven expertise and years of experience in the SEO industry, we dive deep into optimizing each on-page SEO element of your eCommerce website to ensure maximum visibility, higher engagement, and increased sales.
Why wait? Contact us at the earliest and let our team expertly handle your ecommerce website’s SEO.
