Architecture Firm Websites

Kerry Sweeney Posted by Kerry Sweeney on June 20, 2012

10 SEO Tips for Ecommerce Websites

10 SEO Tips for Ecommerce Websites

Optimize your ecommerce business's website for search engines.

If you have a professionally-designed efelle SEOecommerce website and sell excellent products, the only thing standing between your site just scraping by and setting new sales records is search engine optimization, or SEO. Ecommerce websites typically have minimal content and a high quantity of product pages, so ecommerce businesses face unique challenges when it comes to optimizing their sites for search. The following are 10 SEO tips that will improve your ecommerce website's search engine rankings and boost sales.

1. Avoid duplicate content

Ecommerce websites tend to get penalized by search engines because they have a large amount of duplicate content due to the use of manufacturer product descriptions. Avoid getting hit with the duplicate content penalty by writing unique product descriptions.

2. Create unique title tags for each page

A title tag is the text that describes a web page and the most important of all on-page ranking factors. Just tweaking your existing title tags can have an immediate impact on your site's rankings. Your ecommerce website's title tags should contain specific keyword phrases, your company's name, and preferably, a call-to-action that entices people to click.

3. Display user-generated content

To get unique content for your ecommerce website at a minimal cost, encourage website visitors to upload reviews, comments, photos, videos, etc.

4. Create content on a regular basis

Adding unique, engaging content to your website on a regular basis doesn't only provide your customers with more value - it also improves your search engine rankings over time. Create content about the products you sell, incorporating the keywords customers use to find your site.

5. Get social

Search engine algorithms measure social signals, so make your ecommerce store social media-friendly by adding social sharing icons to every page, putting links to your social media accounts on your home page, and incorporating your site's Twitter or Facebook feed.

6. Optimize images

The popularity of image search has made it essential for ecommerce businesses to optimize their images for search engines. Add target keywords to the ALT tags and file names of every image on your website to make them search engine-friendly.

7. Use simple URLs

Use simple URLs that include target keywords rather than long, complicated URLs with session IDs and other parameters.

8. Ensure that all products are one to three clicks from the home page

Don't make the mistake of burying product pages deep into your site. Not only will that make it difficult for customers to find products, it'll also decrease your product pages' search engine visibility.

9. Optimize the anchor text of internal links

When linking to different pages of your site, use anchor text that contains target keywords. For example, rather than using anchor text that says, "Click here", "View", or "See more", use the keywords that you're trying to rank for as anchor text.

10. Invest in a powerful internal search engine

Support your ecommerce website's SEO efforts by investing in a powerful internal search engine that enables you to collect valuable data about how people are searching for products on your site.

Work with efelle to Improve Your Ecommerce Website’s SEO

To ensure the success of your ecommerce website, hire efelle to manage your SEO campaign. We offer a full suite of SEO services that are designed to get your ecommerce website seen by more customers. To set up a free consultation with our SEO specialists, give us a call at 206.384.4909 or fill out our online contact form!

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