If you’re running an online store, you know that driving traffic to your website is important for success. While paid advertising can bring in immediate results, it’s not a sustainable long-term strategy. That’s where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes in. By optimizing your ecommerce website for search engines, you can increase your organic traffic and ultimately boost your sales. In this article, we discuss some ecommerce SEO guide to boost your online store’s organic traffic.

How to boost organic for your online store: an ecommerce SEO guide

Optimize your product pages

Product pages are where customers will make their purchasing decisions, so it’s essential to make sure they’re well-organized, easy to navigate, and optimised for search engines.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind:

• • Use clear and descriptive titles: Make sure the titles of your products accurately describe what they are. Include relevant keywords, such as the colour, material, and size. This helps both customers and search engines understand what the product is.
  • Include product details: Make sure your product pages include all the information a customer would need to make a purchase. This includes things like size and colour options, material, care instructions, and shipping information.
  • Use high-quality images: Use high-resolution images that showcase your products in the best possible light. Make sure the images are optimised for size so that your page loads quickly.
  • Include reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews on your product pages. This helps other customers make informed decisions, and it also provides valuable content for search engines to index.

Use structured data

Structured data, also known as schema markup, is a way to help search engines understand the information on your website. Essentially, it’s a set of tags that you can add to your website’s HTML code that provides additional information about your content. When search engines crawl your website, they can use this structured data to display your content in more useful ways, such as rich snippets.

Here’s an ecommerce SEO guide on how to use structured data:

• • Use the right vocabulary: Structured data uses a specific vocabulary called schema.org. Make sure you’re using the right vocabulary for the information you’re trying to convey.
  • Include all relevant information: Use structured data to provide information such as product prices, ratings, and availability. This will help search engines understand the information on your website and make it more likely to show up in rich snippets.
  • Mark up every page: Make sure to mark up all relevant pages on your website, including your product pages, category pages, and even your blog posts.
  • Test your structured data: Use tools like Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure that your structured data is being read correctly by search engines

Optimize your images

Optimizing your images is another important step in boosting your online store’s organic traffic. It’s not just about having pretty pictures on your website, it’s about making sure that those images are optimised for both size and quality. This will ensure that your website loads quickly, which is important for both customers and search engines.

Here’s a quick ecommerce SEO guide on how to do it:

1. 1. Reduce image file size: Large, high-resolution images can slow down your website, which can negatively impact your SEO. Use image compression tools to reduce the file size without sacrificing quality.
   2. Use descriptive file names: Instead of using generic file names like “IMG_1234.jpg”, use descriptive file names that include relevant keywords. For example, “blue-cotton-men-shirt.jpg”
   3. Add alt tags: Alt tags are used to describe an image to search engines. They’re also important for accessibility, as they’re read by screen readers for visually impaired users. Make sure to include relevant keywords in your alt tags.
   4. Use images that are relevant to your products: Using irrelevant images can hurt your SEO, so make sure the images on your product pages are directly related to the products they’re promoting.
   5. Use high-quality images: High-quality images can make a big difference in how customers perceive your products. Make sure your images are clear, well-lit, and in focus.

Building backlinks

Building backlinks is an important step in boosting your online store’s organic traffic. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank in search results.

Here’s a simple breakdown of how you can build backlinks for your online store:

1. 1. Reach out to other websites in your niche: Find websites that are related to your business and reach out to them. Ask if they would be willing to link to your site.
   2. Create great content: Having valuable and informative content on your website can attract other websites to link to it. Consider creating blog posts, infographics, and videos that other websites would want to link to.
   3. Submit your website to directories: There are many online directories that allow you to submit your website for free. This can help increase your visibility and potentially get you some backlinks.
   4. Offer guest posts: Reach out to websites in your niche and offer to write a guest post for them. This is a great way to get a link back to your website.
   5. Participate in online communities: Participating in online communities related to your niche can help you build relationships with other website owners. This can open the door for backlink opportunities.
   6. Use social media: Share your content on social media and encourage others to share it as well. This can help increase your visibility and potentially lead to more backlinks.

Monitor your progress

It’s important to keep track of how your SEO efforts are paying off, so you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Here are a few things you can do to monitor your progress:

1. 1. Use Google Analytics to track your website’s traffic. You can see how many people are visiting your site, where they’re coming from, and what pages they’re viewing. This will give you a good idea of how your SEO efforts are impacting your traffic.
   2. Check your search engine rankings. Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to see where your website is ranking for different keywords. This will give you an idea of how well your website is doing in search results.
   3. Monitor your backlink profile. Use tools like Ahrefs or Majestic to see how many backlinks your website has and where they’re coming from. This will give you an idea of how well your backlink building efforts are paying off.
   4. Use Google Search Console to see which keywords people are using to find your website. This will give you an idea of what people are searching for and how well your website is ranking for those keywords.
   5. Keep an eye on your bounce rate. This is the percentage of people who visit your website and then leave without viewing any other pages. A high bounce rate can be an indication that your website isn’t providing the information people are looking for.