SEO Tips to Improve Your E-Commerce Site

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a series of practices that help you rank higher on search engines. There are several factors that work in combination to affect your results. In e-Commerce, we need to keep SEO in mind in order to increase chances of being found by the right customers and standing out from competition. Instead of relying on one magic SEO trick that will instantly propel you to the top, use these tips to help create a strong foundation and effective strategy.

How to Deal with Unavailable Products

If you have a product that is currently out of stock or otherwise unavailable, do not disable the product page. When you hide your product from sight, customers are prevented from placing an order that you can’t deliver on. However, here is a better approach. If you anticipate items coming back in stock, availability alerts can be used to let customers know the second it comes back. It allows customers to keep tabs on desired products without actually having to remember. It also means you don’t have to manually alert each individual customer; this process is completely automated in Nav-to-Net™.

If the item has become permanently unavailable (discontinued for whatever reason), redirect customers to similar products, a newer version, or something else that fulfills that need. For example, a certain perfume may be discontinued but you can direct your customers to perfumes with similar scent notes, or perfumes from the same brand.  You can also guide them back towards the parent category page to help retain SEO value.

By not disabling product pages, it helps search engines find the relevant pages better, leading to a better customer experience.

How to Deal with New and Seasonal Products

Creating strong internal link architecture is an important part of maintaining SEO for your webshop. When introducing new or seasonal items to your website, it can be a challenge to ensure they receive enough attention. Make sure there is enough promotion on the homepage as well as product category pages.  Relevant content and links are what strengthens your SEO and attracts customers.

Usability Affects SEO

If the experience of your e-Commerce website is not pleasant, not mobile-friendly, and just difficult to navigate and find information, your SEO is affected negatively. Too much clicking back and forth between pages and illogical ways of presenting your catalog can also negatively affect user experience. If you have products with variations (for example: colour, size), they should be presented in a matrix, all in one page. This prevents duplicate content and cannibalization between the product variants. Customer experience is immediately improved with multi-dimensional product variant presentation because they see all details at a glance.

Less clicks and better navigation can also be achieved with a smooth one-step checkout process and powerful but simply managed parametric search. Help your customers get to where they want faster.

Relevant Content

Compelling, relevant content sells. When well-written, your content presents your products and services to its advantage, lists features and benefits, and tells customers what they need to know. Here are some points to keep in mind about content on your webshop:

• Incorporate user-generated where possible in form of ratings and reviews. Customers use this information to make better buying decisions. As a business, it helps you build credibility and connect with your customers.
• Don’t be obsessed with stuffing your descriptions with all the keywords you can think of. Use appropriate keywords wisely when and if they make sense.
• It can be tricky to come up with unique content for “boring” products like Valve A or Cog 4. Instead, focus on product specifications, how it is used, and ensure the category page descriptions are thorough, giving context to customers. Write descriptions so that new customers can learn more and your regular customers can easily identify the product they are purchasing.
• Relevance also means suggesting appropriate items for cross sell and upsell. Linking to other items and in essence “bundling” some of them together creates a relationship between multiple products that can improve your SEO. Customers will be able to see the enhanced value that you are offering.

In Nav-to-Net™, built-in document management tools help businesses manage all content right in NAV. Automated processes in Nav-to-Net™ help take the guess work out of providing relevant and personalized content for your customers.

Last But Not Least – Metatags

This includes keywords, titles, and descriptions. Search engines are not created equal and use many different algorithms to determine ranking. There are many reasons to optimize metatags though within a webshop. It should be a habit to create this good foundation. It may not the make or break factor, but it certainly has an effect on the overall big picture in SEO.

Nav-to-Net™ has built in SEO capabilities including URL rewriting, meta tag description, title, and keyword management, and alt tag image management all in NAV. These features combined with the right content and proper webshop structure can lead to improved search ranking and visibility.

Nav-to-Net™ is also built with responsive design so you don’t miss out on opportunities related to mobile search.

If you’re interested in learning more about what an integrated NAV webshop can do for your business, talk to us today! Request a demo or explore our resource library.