E-commerce SEO: How to Drive More Traffic to Your Online Store

What is e-commerce SEO?

E-commerce SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of improving the performance of your digital store in online search results to attract more visitors without using paid ads. An effective e-commerce SEO strategy can help your store and product pages appear at the top of a search engine result page (SERP) when potential customers search for products like yours. 

For example, if you sell gardening supplies, you could optimize the product page for search queries (also called keywords) like “gardening gloves” or “gardening soil.” In so doing, you could increase the chances of potential customers finding your page, clicking on it, and making a purchase.

Benefits of e-commerce SEO

Improving your e-commerce site’s SEO is important for ranking higher in search engine results and increasing your brand’s visibility, enhancing the buying experience, attracting more organic traffic and inspiring site visitors’ trust, boosting sales, and more. 

There are several ways to improve your e-commerce site’s performance, including: 

• Building the site around your target customer’s purchase or search intent. What does your target customer want or need? What terms and phrases do they type into a search engine in order to find what they're looking for?

• Improving product pages, product descriptions, and product images. Are the most important product details positioned front and center? Do you provide clear instructions and action buttons for purchasing products? 

• Adding written content to your site that supports customers in making a purchase decision. What do customers need to know about your products and services? What questions or hesitations do they have that the content on your site can address?  

Read more: What Is an SEO Consultant and Do You Need One?

Watch the video below to see how products are added to e-commerce stores:

How to create your e-commerce SEO strategy

In this section, you'll learn how to build an e-commerce SEO strategy for your online store. Monitor SEO results regularly and update your strategy accordingly. 

1. Conduct an e-commerce SEO audit.

An e-commerce SEO audit is the process of examining your site to find out:

• How visible it is online to your target customers

• What steps you can take to improve visibility

Conducting this audit is an important first step for any SEO strategy as it will help determine where your e-commerce site stands among competitors, its search result performance, and areas for improvement. Some areas to examine include: 

• Your site’s internal search engine. Check that when visitors type in search queries into your site's search bar to find information or products, the search yields relevant URLs. 

• Content. Do you offer quality content that reflects your brand values and offers site visitors unique and relevant information?  

• Backlinks. Do you have high-quality, authoritative sites linking back to your content? 

• Page speed. Check the loading time of the pages comprising your site to identify any speed issues that may cost you conversions.

Tip:

Large image files can slow websites down when they're loading. One way you can reduce page loading time, and thereby improve the user experience, is to compress images, without reducing their quality. Use image editing software programs like Adobe Photoshop or Canva to compress images for use your e-commerce site.

2. Gather a list of keywords.

Using keyword research tools, generate keyword ideas that will enhance your e-commerce site. Be sure to compile different types of keywords, including: 

• Product-focused keywords that capture potential customers’ interests in products like yours. Examples include: “maxi dresses” and “dog food.”

• Transactional keywords that contain words indicating a high purchase intent, such as “buy maxi dress” or “purchase dog food.”

• Long-tail keywords that fewer people are searching for online but tend to attract targeted traffic, such as “blue bamboo maxi dresses” or “best organic dog food.” 

• Subcategory keywords for each of the broad product categories on your site. For example, if toys and games is a broad product category, then subcategory keywords might include dolls, action figures, board games, educational toys, costumes, and sporting equipment.

• Semantically related keywords that are very similar to your main keywords. You can often find these kinds of keywords by performing a Google search for your main term and looking at "related searches" further down on the search result page. For example, if your main keyword is "athletic clothing," searching Google might yield semantically related keywords like "athletic wear women," "athletic wear sets," and "workout sets."

3. Investigate your competitors’ sites. 

Along with auditing your e-commerce site, you’ll need to examine your SEO competitors. An SEO competitor is a site or page that ranks at the top of a Google search results page for your target keywords. These competing sites may or may not be the same businesses that sell products like yours. In addition, you will have different SEO competitors for different keywords. 

There are several ways to analyze these web pages, including:

• Using an SEO tool such as SEMRush or Ahrefs to discover additional keywords their content is ranking for 

• Evaluating the quality of the content, especially of other e-commerce websites

• Testing out the user experience of competitor sites

• Looking for content gaps, such as unmet customer needs or unanswered questions 

• Reviewing product pages and product descriptions for opportunities to present your offerings more favorably  

Read more: What Is Competitor Analysis? Definition + Step-by-Step Guide

4. Improve site architecture. 

Site architecture refers to the hierarchical structure of a website’s pages. When your site is easy to navigate, visitors can find the information and products they seek. In addition, search engines like Google can crawl the site and understand the relationship between pages. 

To improve site architecture, start by simplifying and organizing the site’s structure, so visitors have to click no more than three times to get from the home page to a product page. 

Then, create a sitemap (a document listing all the crawlable pages on your site) and submit it to Google through your Google Search Console. This will help the search engine understand what your e-commerce website is about and which pages are the most important. 

5. Improve URLs.

Adding keywords to your URLs can improve search rankings. Refer to your list of keywords, including broad and subcategory keywords, product keywords, and transactional keywords, and add them to the URLs of pages where they best fit. For example, if a product page is focused on women's running shoes, this keyword should be included in the URL for that page (i.e., www.myexamplewebsite.com/products/womens-running-shoes).

What to avoid when creating URLs:

It's best to exclude the words "a," "and," "the," and "of," unless they are part of your main keyword. Also, avoid creating URLs over 60 characters. Keep them as short as possible.

6. Improve title tags and meta descriptions.

Meta descriptions and title tags are part of technical SEO and work alongside site architecture to help Google understand what your website is about. These two elements are usually located in a website’s backend or admin panel where you can edit the information about a page. 

For each page: 

• Craft a title tag that includes the keyword you want the page to rank for and clearly describes each page's content in 50 to 60 characters.

• Craft a page description that contains the keyword, summarizes the page, and conveys the page’s unique value in up to 160 characters.

7. Improve on-page SEO.

On-page SEO refers to a website’s content and how it’s composed. For an e-commerce site, the content might include product pages, product demos, blog posts, customer reviews, and FAQs.  

While each page type will function differently, there are a few SEO tactics that can improve the quality and function of them all: 

• Create unique content that satisfies searcher intent and is authoritative within your industry. You might consider starting a blog and posting new content regularly to answer potential customers' questions, teach them about your products, and encourage their trust.

• Include clear, compelling calls to action where appropriate. 

• Structure each page to lead visitors through a logical thought process.

• Use headings, subheadings, and numbered and bulleted lists to easily scan content. 

• Ensure target keywords are used strategically throughout the text, headings, and subheadings. 

Tip:

At the same time that you use priority keywords strategically throughout your site, be sure to avoid keyword stuffing. Keyword stuff refers to the act of including the same keywords (or variants) over and over again throughout your site, so that they become overused and repetitive. Keyword stuffing can make your site copy difficult to read and cause search engines to penalize your site.

Read more: What Is Content Marketing?

8. Improve internal linking. 

Internal linking refers to linking between pages on a website. Internal linking works alongside a site map to help visitors find information and make it easier for Google to crawl the site. Here are some internal linking strategies: 

• Link to important product pages in the sitewide menu without overcrowding the menu with too many drop-down items. 

• Incorporate a “customers also bought” section and link to popular or related products. 

• Link from blog articles to product pages and vice versa. 

• Insert links in relevant anchor text, also called link text, that hyperlinks display when linking to another webpage. 

Tip:

Adding outbound links to your e-commerce site may help its search rankings. Outbound links, are links to sites other than your own. While it may seem counter-intuitive to send traffic away from your e-commerce site, choosing relevant and authoritative content from other sources to reference in your text could help search engines and readers better understand your site's content.

9. Acquire relevant backlinks.  

Backlinking refers to instances when another site links to pages on your site. This practice is sometimes referred to as link building. You can think of backlinks, also called external links, as a vouching system. If an authoritative, high-quality site sends traffic to your site, users, as well as Google, recognize your site pages as valuable. 

Ways to acquire backlinks include: 

• Guest presenting on a podcast to present your brand and its products.

• Reaching out to administrators of websites in your niche to request backlinks. Offer an incentive such as improving their existing content with yours or proposing guest blog ideas for content you want to write for them.

• Post your most backlink-worthy content to social media and ask your audience to add links to their sites. 

E-commerce SEO best practices 

As you grow your e-commerce business and continually improve the SEO of your online store, keep these best practices in mind:

1. Schedule regular time to improve SEO. 

As your site expands to accommodate more content and products, take time to maintain your site’s SEO settings, including internal links, meta descriptions and title tags, and the content itself. Set up a sustainable schedule, such as monthly or quarterly, to perform this maintenance. 

2. Select the right SEO tools for your business. 

SEO tools are available—at different price points and offering different functions—to help you discover keywords, monitor your site’s performance, research competitors’ SEO, and more. Reserve time to discover which tools might work best for your e-commerce business. Here are a few: 

• SEMRush: perform competitor research, keyword research, content and social media marketing, and more.

• Ahrefs: perform competitor and keyword research, conduct a site audit, explore content ideas, track your rankings, more more.

• Google Search Console: measure your site's search traffic and performance, optimize content, submit site maps and URLs, and more.  

• Google Analytics: monitor the performance of your marketing, content, and products; analyze data, run ads, and more.

• Ubersuggest: analyze competitors' SEO, gain insight into winning strategies and content ideas, and more.

Read more: Google Analytics Dashboard: What It Is and How to Get Started

3. Vet e-commerce SEO services.

There may come a time in your business when you need to outsource e-commerce SEO support to keep pace with your business’s evolving needs. It’s a good idea to weigh your options, from finding an e-commerce SEO consultant to hiring an entire e-commerce SEO company to take on this responsibility. 

SEO consultants

As of April 2024, LinkedIn lists around 14,000 consultants and 140,000 companies that specialize in e-commerce SEO or offer it as part of their services. Consider your budget, specific e-commerce SEO needs, and business goals when vetting services. Look for a company or consultant that has knowledge of your industry and the type of products you sell.  Read more: What Is an SEO Consultant and Do You Need One?

4. Periodically revamp your content strategy.

Schedule time to review your product page, home page, and blog content, to find opportunities for improvement. For example, adding product reviews and customer testimonials, taking better photographs of products, and creating instructions for how to use your products are just a few ways to make incremental changes for the better.

Improve your e-commerce SEO with Coursera

E-commerce SEO is a broad industry with many career possibilities, including improving e-commerce SEO for your online store, hiring a consultant or company, or becoming an e-commerce SEO expert and providing this service to other companies. 

Taking online courses can be a great way to learn more about e-commerce SEO and make an empowered career decision. Learn how to build e-commerce stores, improve a site’s SEO, conduct effective email marketing campaigns, and more in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate.