Search engine optimization for e-commerce websites can be a lot trickier than standard optimization for most other website types. Online stores with shopping carts may have hundreds (or thousands) of individual pages, so it may be impossible to manually optimize each one. Additionally, many shopping cart platforms use URL structures and parameters that make it harder for search engines to read the pages, and the sheer number of pages may lead an engine to decide that the bulk of them are not worth indexing.
How do you optimize ecommerce page? Usually it is best to start by finding a shopping cart that is “search engine friendly.” Basically, this means that the cart software can substitute a readable directory structure for parameters that include characters like the ampersand (&) and percentage sign (%), which can give search engines headaches. Many carts have built in URL rewriting features, but other open-source e-commerce platforms may require a third-party plug-in to make URLs readable.
The next item to check off your list involves getting product pages indexed. There are a couple of important approaches to take. First, each individual page should have a clear connection back to upper level categories in the form of breadcrumbs and links back to the homepage. Secondarily, your HTML structure should be creating links to your shopping cart pages so a search engine could theoretically start at the homepage, progress through categories, and find links to each product in your shopping cart. This is not always easy if you are using a search function (such as dropdowns) to locate products, so you may need to be creative. Last, an XML sitemap should be used to tell the search engines where the products are. Some people in the SEO community are against XML sitemaps because they make it harder to prove that a search engine found your page the “right” way, but if you are relying on your product pages to make money as quickly as possible, you probably have a different opinion.
For most individual pages, you will want to create a protocol that populates part of the title and description tags automatically. Normally, the short product description is a great way to start your title, and you can create a static portion of the title that always has the same messaging or branding. For instance, if you sell “square blue widgets” on one page, the title would have a variable field for that section of the title that may look like “{short product description} | WidgetWorld Exotic Products Company.” If all your short product descriptions are unique, then you will have a unique description for each one. If you sell products with item numbers that people search for, such as inkjet refills and batteries, then you will want to put that item number in the title as well. At the same time, you should be filling in the meta description with a snippet of your product description to make each description unique.
Some of the top e-commerce stores on the internet also use content to improve search engine rankings. Some approaches for adding content to multiple pages involve either writing good content for high volume/high margin items, allowing customers to post product reviews, or soliciting the services of professional writers to add content to your top product pages. Usually it does not help to just go with the manufacturer’s content because that is likely to be used on other sites, so your shopping cart pages could be pegged as duplicate content. Having unique, relevant, and keyword rich content on your pages gives you an advantage over everyone using the “copy and paste” philosophy.
Once you have your pages optimized, and your product pages have permanent SEO friendly URLs, it is time to start deep linking to popular products. To determine your most prominent products, you may only have to use Pay-Per-Click data to see which items get the most searches, or which ones get the most conversions. By getting external links from other sites, and linking to select featured items from your homepage, you can improve the prominence of specific products in the eyes of the search engines and move up your rankings.
As stated above, SEO for ecommerce stores can be very tricky, expensive, and time consuming. Depending on your shopping cart, it may even necessitate the services of a programmer. Nonetheless, a well planned dynamic optimization setup is a great way to get incremental traffic for specific searches, especially higher converting long-tail product queries. If you can get customers who know exactly what they want, they have a much higher chance of making a purchase from your site, so the “volume” game is the key advantage in the world of shopping cart SEO. As your site becomes more successful, you can either revisit the optimization on underperforming pages or add related products. As you fine tune your e-commerce optimization campaign, you should also notice an appreciable impact on your bottom line, which can more than justify the expense of a well optimized shopping cart system.
See an incremental sales increase from better e-commerce SEO.
Tags: e-commerce SEO
