Online stores SEO

Online stores SEO is one of the most important and powerful methods used in digital marketing for many reasons the most important of them are:

• Paves the way for achieving the goals and the expected profit from establishing online stores.
• Contributes to the success of your business, and gives you wide options to reach a wide range of target audiences by following the methods of free online store SEO.
• It helps you reach a target audience that has the demographics that fit the presented services and commodities in your online store.

The term SEO refers to search engine optimization.

Which is the work to improve the traffic of your website or online store SEO so that the public can reach it on the first pages of search engine results.

This is what website and store owners want.

The SEO strategy is one of the free strategies that you can use and apply to market and promote your website or online store, and reach the target audience that is really looking for you.

The more visits to your site or online store, the higher your chances of working and making profits.

As for online stores, they are commercial platforms to provide information and services or to buy and sell various products and goods over the Internet.

Its use has spread rapidly and widely until it has become an indispensable means of completing the sale and purchase of Arab and international transactions.

And it has fundamentals that must be met because it is the most important reason for its success, which are:

1. The product.
2. The quality.
3. The prices.
4. Marketing.
5. Return policies and procedures. 
6. Shipping and receipt ways and fees.

Controlling online stores SEO is different from setting the SEO of regular sites, it is much simpler!

And it is considered natural and free marketing of the online store and the goods displayed in it.

It also relies heavily on the commodities themselves to configure the search engines, in different aspects, starting from the name of the store, sub-names, pictures of products, their description, and their features.

Online stores SEO factors:

1. Image content “photos”.
2. Product specification and rating.
3. Online store compatibility with mobile.
4. Split pages.

First: the photographic content “photos”:

It is the most important mean by which the commodity is presented.

By taking multiple pictures from different points, angles, and poses.

The pictures may sometimes be considered a promotional trick for the displayed goods, as their colors, sizes, and effects that are applied to them can be manipulated to be more attractive than they actually are.

Therefore, it has become very necessary for the illustrated content to reflect how the product is used in life to be more reliable or to display it while using it in a representative manner to add a bit of realism.

In addition to the fact that Google cares about the graphic content and prefers it and it is seen as higher quality than others, and thus gives it higher rankings in search engine results.

The visual content is an additional opportunity to further improve the SEO of your online store, especially since many searches are done using visual content.

Second: Product specifications and evaluation:

No doubt using the evaluation feature in your online store gives it great credibility.

When you put a review button for each product, and for each sale and purchase, you allow the customer to express his opinion on the services you provide, and thus you know the position of your store among other competing online stores.

Also, the visitors’ evaluation of the online store products adds free marketing value.

Visitors can view the total evaluation of a product, so they can buy it with peace of mind while being affected by the positive evaluation that people who tried it left. 

Third: Online store compatibility with mobile phone:

The purchases made by mobile phones have become much larger than the purchases made by computers.

It has become very necessary for the online store to be compatible with the mobile phone and does not interfere with it for ease of use and browsing that allows the visitor to buy while he is satisfied with the quality of the store’s products and his ideal experience while using it.

Fourth: Split pages:

Split pages are the process of linking a group of pages with each other in a sequential manner and with numbers located at the top or bottom of a web page.

Online stores use this method extensively to allow their visitors to browse their various products.

This technique is called a split page or pagination.

Question: How do we use page segmentation without affecting the online store in search engines?

1. Using the statement “rel = prev” and the statement “rel = next” to link the split pages. Search engines, when you read them, will know that these pages are not duplicated, but rather that they are one divided page.
2. Using the statement “rel = canonical”: This method is used only in cases where the “view all” button is available. When you click on this button, all pages will be displayed and merged into one page.
3. Using plugins and software: If you are using WordPress, for example, you can use the Yoast tool, which will perform the partitioning process and the appropriate instructions.

The most important factors for improving on-page SEO for online stores:

1. Headline title:

   It must contain the product name in Arabic and English to get the visitor by using any language.

2. URL:

   It is the link to the product page in the online store, and it must contain the name of the product.

3. A brief description of the product Meta description:

   The product description should begin with the keyword, as search engines pay great attention to all the words contained in the description field.

   And you have in this field (140-160 characters) to explain briefly through them the quality of this product.

4. Using the Alt Text tag on the image:

   It is one of the HTML tags that are used with images.

   It is an alternative text that appears to inform the visitor of the content of the image in case the upload is delayed.

   And because images are a very necessary component of online stores, you should exploit them by placing keywords in the alt tag.

5. Headings :

   They are the subheadings of the online store items.

   To gain more visitors through search engines, you should use the keyword and product name in the H1 – H2 subheadings.

6. Content :

   It is the text content accompanying the product image in the online store.

   The texts should be uploaded first before the images as this will reduce the number of bounce rates.

   This will definitely be in your best interest with Google.

   Also, texts by their nature are faster to download than pictures, and this will help to keep the visitor busy if the image is delayed, so he will pay attention to reading the text and not get bored.

7. Keyword density:

   One of the most important factors that can be used, it helps to raise your online store’s ranking in search engine results.

   It might push you to the front of the first page.

8. Backlinks :

   You can contact some bloggers (preferably, influencers on social media sites based on the image) because you need reference links that clearly positively reveal your store.

What are the keywords that you use in your online store (Online store SEO)? And how do you choose them?

There is no doubt that before starting any work to improve search engine results (on or off the site),

You have to start with the search (search for keywords, then search for competitors).

This is because research is really the most important part of online store SEO.

Targeting the wrong keywords could damage your site or online store by generating low-quality traffic and few conversions.

You sure never want that.

But; How do you search for the right keywords to use in your store or website?

Here’s the answer:

There are three primary areas you need to focus on when performing your keyword research:

Domain 1: Find keywords for your homepage and product pages:

When it comes to optimizing your website’s most important pages, you should consider three things:

• Convenience.
• Search volume.
• Difficulty arranging.

We, therefore, suggest you search for keywords that are closely related to your brand or products and have a medium to high search volume in Ubersuggest.

You can take the following steps:

• Enter your keyword and click “Search”.

• Click “Keyword ideas” in the left sidebar:
  
• Review the search volume for each keyword:
  

In the previous example, we notice that searching for “leather notebook” resulted in 282 keyword ideas.

While the first choice “leather notebook” is a good keyword to use on your home page, the remaining six choices from the list will be appropriate for the product pages.

And be careful not to choose keywords that are too general or too competitive.

At Ubersuggest, you can search for keywords with an SD (SEO difficulty) level of 50 or less.

And if you are looking for keywords with high competition, it will take a long time to achieve high rankings (if any).

And if the match is too broad, you likely end up with a high bounce rate and low conversion rate because people click through to your site and do not find what they’re looking for.

For example, if you make “all-natural” coffee filters, you should not go after generic keywords like “coffee” or “natural coffee,” because these are not specific keywords for people searching for coffee filters.

Plus, these words are highly competitive, and your site may not be ranked against major coffee makers.

The second domain: Defining keywords for blog topics:

Blog content creation may help you categorize your eCommerce business by using additional keywords that may not have a place on your main website.

Plus, you can take advantage of your blog’s long keywords, which consist of more than one word and people use to find things online.

According to SeoMoz :

The remaining 70% are in so-called “long words” for research.

Searches for long terms amount to hundreds of millions of searches that can be performed multiple times a day.

But when combined, they make up the majority of the world’s demand for information through search engines.

With that in mind, you can keep track of long-form keywords that have a high search volume (locally, not internationally) and a low difficulty level.

After this list is exhausted, you can start targeting keywords that are low in volume and still relevant.

Notice:

Never stuff any of your web pages or blog posts with useless keywords.

And when writing for your blog, focus on developing great content on the topics that people will actually want to read and share.

Always write for people, not search engines.

Today, Google’s algorithms reward sites that create great content, penalize sites that contain worthless or unimportant keywords, or use other methods that could be considered fraudulent.

Domain Three: Avoid Keyword Breakup:

Keyword breakdown occurs when multiple pages of the same site try to rank based on the same keyword, which is confusing to search engines, ends up forcing them to choose the page that is more important for this keyword than the other set of pages, impairing your ability to get traffic for that keyword. 

This means that you shouldn’t even write a blog post with your focused keyword for a page on the main part of your website.

To avoid keyword cracking, list every page of your website in a spreadsheet of the keywords you are trying to rank.

And if you sort the Keywords column, you shouldn’t see any duplicates of the keywords.

Steps to improve SEO online stores

• Optimization on product pages:

While off-page SEO (link building) is important, on-page optimization is just as important.

On-page optimization includes all the actions you take within your web pages to help your site rank better.

And when it comes to page optimization, there are some key goals that you need to focus on, and they are:

1. Optimize your keywords.
2. Site structure.
3. Interconnection.
4. Ease of use.
5. The mobile-responsive version of the site.
6. Customer and consumer opinions.
7. Rich and formatted snips.
8. Integration with social media.

•  Improve your keywords:

We previously talked about the importance of optimizing your page and blog posts on your site for a single keyword.

To optimize the page, you need to ensure that it contains the keywords in strategic locations, including:

1. 1. The title of the page.
   2. Heads.
   3. Subheadings.
   4. Paragraph copy.
   5. Product description.
   6. Image file names.
   7. Tags alt image.
   8. Title, definition, and description.
   9. URLs.

When creating URLs, make sure that they are easy to use, include real words (your keyword), and not lots of numbers and useless words.

Also, remember that your Meta title and descriptions should not be messy and lacks value and clarity, and include keywords as well.

And reading the headline should be like an ad, because the higher the click-through rate (CTR), Google will place you higher the results.

Illustrative example:

When we search for “conference promotional products”, two lists appear on the first page:

Which of these two descriptions will make you click? A keyword-filled headline, or one that attracts you with interest (knowing how promotional products can make a lasting impact on your company)?

Once you think and segment it that way, page optimization makes more sense.

• Site structure:

If you are building a website from scratch or redesigning it, information engineering is necessary.

The great structure of the website can greatly affect its usability, arrangement, and conversions.

Additionally, proper planning will make future expansion of product lines easy (especially with e-commerce sites of massive volume).

With ease of use in mind, you can use a tool like LucidChart to create an architecture diagram of your website.

Focus on creating a “flat architecture” for your site – that is, a design that requires the fewest clicks to move from your homepage to your product page.

This way, the maximum power of your site will be transferred from your homepage to your product page via internal links.

Then; Take your findings from the keyword research you did in the beginning, and base your site’s structure on your targeted keywords in a way that provides your customers and search engines a logical path from the homepage to product pages.

For example:

If you run an online pet food store, your site structure might look something like this:

The layout above shows that it has links branching off the homepage all the way to product pages.

The linking of pages and categories to distribute the strength of the site was done based on words and pages that had higher-ranking priority.

And if you really want to stand out from the competition, using tools like Doofinder can help you with that.

Doofinder is a search engine that can be added in less than 5 minutes to your site and help you increase your sales significantly.

• Interconnection:

  This is when you link your website pages to other pages within your website.

  Internal linking allows you to create your own anchor text that helps you rank your best keywords.

  

  And when it comes to internal bonding, you must make sure that you use it in moderation, and only place internal connections where they are naturally present.

  If you fill in all your pages with internal links, Google will think that you are trying to do something fraudulent.

  Plus, don’t add too many links with the exact same anchor text.

  Google is always looking for a variety of link texts from inbound and internal links.

  Once you have your website done, you have to create a sitemap and send it to Google so it can crawl the entire website and index all of its pages.

• Ease of use:

  Ease of use is very important to SEO and to make your visitors happy.

  And if your e-commerce website has great ease of use and provides the desired benefit, your customers will start visiting it more often and stay there longer, and this is the goal!

  Usability testing should include the following:

  • Ensure that there are the fewest possible steps in the payment process.
  • Ensure that the checkout process goes smoothly.
  • The visitor can use multiple and fast ways to contact you.
  • The download speed makes it easy for your visitors to move between pages.

It is often recommended to use a live chat tool that works well at increasing conversion rates and increases the average time spent on the site per session, which is great for SEO purposes.

•  A copy of the website for the mobile phone:

  Not only do many people browse websites but also make purchases with their mobile phones.

  This means it is really important to have a mobile-compatible version of your site or online store.

  Here are some stats that confirm this:

  • Pew2012: 31% of mobile internet users use the internet with their phones.
  • IAB: 61% of customers who visit a site that is not mobile-responsive go directly to a competitor’s site.
  • Google 2011: 58% of mobile users expect mobile sites to load more quickly than desktop sites.

Many companies have had problems with the mobile versions of their websites, as they have produced duplicate content, creating SEO issues that affected Google’s ranking algorithms.

With the advent of responsive website design, you can code a site so that it works on any device (desktop, tablet, mobile phone) without creating multiple sites.

It is the most appropriate and wonderful thing for e-commerce sites.

Notice:

If you don’t have a web developer among your employees, you can purchase and customize a responsive design template from Themeforest.net that has a good selection of e-commerce templates.

•  Add customer reviews:

  One of the essential elements of any e-commerce website is customer reviews for each product.

  And according to Internet Retailer, you can increase your e-commerce conversion rate by 14/76% by adding product reviews to your online store.

  Jupiter Research has also found that 77% of consumers read reviews before purchasing online.

  In addition to increasing conversions, customer reviews also positively affect your SEO, because more comments mean more content, and frequent reviews mean that content is new, and that is what Google awaits.

  Moreover, to get more customer reviews, you can use a bonus-based plugin like WooTheme’s Review for Discount option.

  You can also send an email a few days after knowing that the customer has received a product and asking if they need any help, and if not, ask them to leave a comment.

  Simple ideas like these will really help you with SEO.

• Rich Video Snippets:

  They are bits encoded in HTML format, which tells search engines what researchers should be able to understand about your website before clicking to see it.

  And if you’ve used Google recently, you’ve probably noticed results that look like this:

  Or like this:
  

  Rich snippets have a huge impact on a website’s rankings.

  There are types of it: (for authors, people, business information, events, music albums, products, recipes, reviews, ratings, videos, etc.).

  And when people see results in Google attached to these excerpts, they are more likely to click.

  To install rich snippets, follow these instructions:

  1. Enter your own HTML for every page you want rich snippets on.
  2. Add microdata to the desired formatted snippet.
  3. Post your changes.
  4. Test it works via this link: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets.

•  Integration with social media:

An e-commerce site wouldn’t be complete without social media!

Social media mentions such as: (growing your community – interacting with customers – sharing content, etc.) affect your SEO

And having a lot of social mentions tells Google that people find your brand and website value.

And you can start growing your social mentions quickly by adding social buttons to product pages, blog posts, or the homepage.

According to Jayson DeMers at Forbes: A distinct social presence can help build word of mouth that attracts you leads, mentions, and connections.

Perhaps the number 1 social media channel that you need to set up and share is Google Plus.

“Google has confirmed that social signals play an important role in its algorithm,” Forbes says.

Therefore, the most important network is Google Plus.

Set up a store that is suitable for mobile browsing

If your online store isn’t mobile-responsive you will miss out on a large number of customers.

Especially after the mobile Internet included the majority of search requests, and it was strengthened by Google’s first mobile index.

How to attract customers to your store or website?

• Use a responsive design. A website designed in this way will automatically switch elements of its page and resize them to fit any screen.
• Use large, easy-to-read fonts, zooming in and out on the phone screen is easy, but it wastes time that users prefer to spend watching content.
• Use short paragraphs of text, and leave space between items (negative space) which will prevent users from accidentally pressing a wrong button or checkbox.
• Avoid the use of intrusive interstitial ads, including ads, banners, and pop-ups that cover a lot of the screen, making the site unusable.

And if you want interstitial ads, they should be small and easy to close.

• Make sure your redirects are working. And if the mobile version of your site has a separate URL, be sure to set up the redirects between them.
• The desktop web page should always lead to its mobile counterpart and vice versa.
• Make your website load fast. Internet users don’t like to wait.

Therefore, improve the speed of your website to make them more eager to visit you and become your customers.

Page loading time affects site rankings as well.

You can also test your site in the WebCEO Mobile Optimization tool and see how it works.

Providing security and privacy for the site

Here’s what you can do to make your site safe:

• Go to HTTPS:

  If you haven’t already and your site is still on HTTP, you should confirm this as soon as possible.

  Security is not the only reason to do this. When browsers display a page using the HTTP protocol, they mark it as “unsafe” next to the URL bar, and when users see that they prefer to leave the page rather than risk their information being stolen.

• Use a CDN:

  Many CDNs have safeguards against risks such as cyberattacks and server failures.

  Make sure to choose the most secure CDN you can afford.

• Keep your plugins updated:

  If you use plugins on your site, you should update them as soon as their new versions are released, because old versions of plugins tend to contain vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit to gain access to your site.

  This does not necessarily mean that the newer versions are completely free of vulnerabilities, but they are still more secure because hackers may not know their vulnerabilities yet.