It’s proven. People tend to click more on the first search results that are displayed when they type in a search term. That’s why a good strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial. It’s goal is to make your online store appear in this list of first results. Here are 10 best practices that will give you every chance of positioning yourself well.
- Insert relevant keywords in your website
The first piece of advice is to think about inserting the keywords most relevant to your industry when you are writing your website’s content. You will help your future customers find your products. There are many online tools such as Google Keyword Planner or Amazon Suggest to help you draw up the list of terms people enter most often when they are searching for the type of products or services that you offer.
Well written metadata will also help promote your SEO. These are the metatitle, the metadescription and the keywords. You will easily find good tips for writing them with a little research on the web.
2. Provide a site plan
Always have a Site Plan section in your site’s navigation. This will let search engines easily identify your content and index it.
3. Optimize product images
More and more people use image search to find the products they are looking for. So you need to take care of your image descriptions (the “Alt” attributes). These must clearly identify the image to be effective.
4. Write unique product descriptions
Manufacturer’s product descriptions are often very basic. In addition, most merchants use them as is. However, duplicate content is heavily penalized by search engines. Each product description should be unique. So you will have to systematically rewrite them and enrich them with keywords.
5. Take care of your hyperlinks
Internal linking is essential for good site SEO. Make links between the different pages of your store. Also, avoid “click here”. Rather insert keywords that describe the page you are redirecting the person to. For example, let’s say you are selling shoes. Instead of writing “Click here”, you say “Check out our section with the best sneakers”.
6. Avoid duplicate content
As mentioned above, duplicate content does not make search engines happy. Take care to present unique content in each section of your store, especially in your catalog.
7. Provide your customers’ opinions
Don’t be afraid to give your customers a voice. Most of the time, if your products and services are of good quality, the comments will be good. These reviews will not only create unique content, very popular with search engines, but also attract new visitors.
8. Be active on social media
A social media strategy is essential to complement your SEO strategy. Be active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other platform relevant to your field.
9. Install data analysis tools
In order to keep track of your online store’s evolution, install a data analysis tool such as Google Analytics. This will allow you to track data about the use of your website month by month (sessions, source of traffic, bounce rate, landing page, etc.). Many e-commerce platforms also offer integral reporting tools to help you track your sales (number of visitors and orders, average order size, stock turnover, etc.). With all the data obtained you will be able to quickly adjust and improve your website.
10. Optimize your site’s speed
Finally, don’t overlook the speed your store loads. This is a parameter the search engines take into account to position you well. Delete unnecessary extensions and images that are too heavy. This will make your pages display faster.