Many Shopify store owners are not leveraging their full SEO potential. You might think that you don’t need Shopify SEO or that it is too difficult to set up, but you could be missing out on a large number of potential customers browsing your online store. If you want to help your e-commerce store show up in Google, here are some SEO Shopify tips to help you get started. 

What is Shopify SEO?

Shopify SEO is the process of making your online store more visible in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that when people search for the product that you sell, you want to rank high so that you get more organic traffic and increased sales.

Best SEO Shopify Tips for 2022

In order to optimize your Shopify store effectively, follow these 9 tips.

Tip #1: Categorize Your Products

Category pages allow online shoppers to easily navigate your products. You’ll want to target keywords that your shoppers would be interested in. 

You’ll first want to start with title tags and meta descriptions. As PracticalEcommerce states, “The title tag is the most influential on-page element that sets your page’s keyword theme and, combined with the meta description, influences the search terms the page ranks for.” 

Another element you’ll want to optimize is your heading tags. Heading tags are parts of the page that tell the reader what certain parts of the page contain. 

The Media Captain offers these tips for more effective headlines:

• Only have a single H1 on the page.
• H2-H4s should elaborate on the core theme and follow a clear hierarchy of information.
• Use relevant keywords in your headings.
• Make your headings relevant and captivating; you want your readers to be intrigued and informed on the content within that section.

Tip #2: Optimize Your Shopify Store’s URL Structure

If you want to rank well, another thing you have to keep in mind is your URL structure. A clear URL makes it easy for visitors and search engines to navigate your site. 

ContentKing states a URL is generally considered good if it’s: 

• Descriptive and easy to read
• Brief
• Consistent
• Lowercase

This makes it so that when using Search Engines users can see the whole URL and keywords before they click.

You should also try to include keywords in your URL’s, so rather than something like this:

example.com/categories/jk13d3

You should have a URL that contains keywords from your product page. So if ID jk13d3 stands for “Levi Jeans” on your site, you could change the URL to:

example.com/categories/levi-jeans 

Another tip is to make sure you separate your URLs with hyphens. Google may not be able to read your URLs (eg. example.com/soccershoes) if you don’t include punctuation. Keep in mind Google treats hyphens as a space (eg. example.com/soccer-shoes) and underscores as a separate character.

Tip #3: Choose Your Keywords Wisely

The keywords that you incorporate into your eCommerce store are incredibly important. That’s why it’s imperative to do research and see what your direct competitors are using. This can be done just by going to their websites and compiling data or using a keyword research tool. Here are just a few tools that might work for you:

• Google Keyword Planner – Get help with keyword research and selecting the right terms.
• WordStream Keyword Tool – Discover and export new keywords and performance data to help you succeed in Google Ads and Bing Ads.
• SearchAtlas – a popular SEO tool that specializes in keyword research, competitor analysis, and content optimization

When picking what keywords to target there are a couple of factors you’ll want to look at:

1. Search Volume: this is the amount of time a keyword is searched for within a certain timeframe.
2. Keyword Difficulty: this is how hard it will be to rank for a certain keyword
3. CPC: Cost-per-click is the amount advertisers are paying to target the keyword in Google Ads and is a good sign of conversion potential

Usually, you want to target keywords with a high search volume, high CPCs, and less competition. 

Once you know what keywords you’re targeting, start incorporating them into product descriptions, landing pages, and headlines. You’ll want to continue to monitor these keywords and see how they’re performing, and make adjustments when necessary.

Tip #4: Attract Buyers With Your Page Title

When searching Google your page title is the first thing online shoppers will see and influences whether or not someone will click on it. And what’s the right length for a title tag? As Moz states, “While Google does not specify a recommended length for title tags, most desktop and mobile browsers are able to display the first 50–60 characters of a title tag.”

Here’s a formula for writing a great page title:

Keyword | Additional Keyword | Business Name

Here’s what this looks like when you search “cashmere sweater” on Google:

As you can see, these Page Titles are short and sweet. It’s important not to stuff your titles full of keywords as this can get you into trouble with Search Engines.

Tip #5: Develop A Strategic Content Plan

To create a great content strategy you can’t just create blog content, stuff in a bunch of keywords, and call it a day. Instead, you’ll want to start off by thinking about your target audience and what type of content resonates most with them.

Dive into your analytics and look at things like the age, gender, and location of people who buy your products. Another big factor is how your audience likes to consume your content. Do they use Instagram? Prefer videos or white papers? Short or longer-form content?

Start thinking about what sets you apart from your competition. From there, you can develop original content that aligns with your brand and your audience’s interests. Make sure to do keyword research, SEO competitor analysis, and look at keyword gaps. And finally, get started on writing your unique content! Content can be for:

• Social Media
• Email
• Guides/Ebooks
• Infographics
• Videos
• Blog Posts

Once published on your Shopify website, you’ll want to monitor performance to see what page content your audience is enjoying and interacting with. This will impact your content plan moving forward.

Tip #6: Keyword Density

Keyword density – also called keyword frequency – is the number of times a keyword appears on a webpage compared to the overall word count. In the past keyword stuffing, or putting as many keywords as possible into content was very common. Now Google penalizes the page rankings of sites that keyword stuff. 

Want to figure out your keyword density? It’s easy to do! Simply divide the number of times a keyword is used on your page by the total number of words on the page. 

For example, say your content had 30 keywords and overall 2,000 words:

30 / 2000 = .015 %

Multiply that by 100 to get the percentage and you get 1.5 %.

For keyword density, there’s no perfect amount although “…many SEOs recommend using approximately one keyword for each 200 words of copy.”

There are also some free tools to help you calculate keyword density if you want to streamline the process:

• SureOak: offers free keyword analysis for the SEO of any page on your website.
• SmallSEOTools: analyzes the density of your text just as a search engine would do.
• SEO Content Assistant: Recommends a frequency for key topical terms based on your target keyword

Tip #7: Acquire Trustworthy & Authoritative Backlinks

What’s a backlink? Backlinks are links from one website to another. They’re important because these links tell Google and other search engines that your site has domain authority. 

So when a bunch of other websites link to your website this increases your website’s domain authority with search engines, therefore also increasing your SEO. 

Not all backlinks hold the same weight though. You want to have backlinks to websites that have high domain authority. For example, a backlink from a page on Shopify would be extremely valuable since they are an authoritative website.

There are a couple of strategies you can use to when link building:

• Guest posting: research blogs or companies that relate to your business and email them to see if they would be interested in a guest post. 
• Become a source for reporters: HARO (Help a Reporter Out) connects people that need sources, like journals and publications, to sources. It’s free to sign up and you can filter by industry. 
• Write great content: If you write quality content that resonates with your audience others might start linking to it without you even needing to reach out.
• Infographics: according to Search Engine Journal, an infographic is 30 times more likely to be read than a text article. Companies love including them in blogs and ebooks so if you’re able to create a visually appealing infographic it can go a long way for your e-commerce website.

Tip #8: Optimize Image Alt Text

Today, nearly 38% of Google’s SERPs show images. That’s why it’s important to capitalize on another source of organic traffic – images.

Alt text or alt tags is the copy that will appear if an image fails to load. If someone is using a screen reading tool the image will be described using this copy. 

In order to add Alt text to your products Shopify provides these instructions:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products > All products.
2. Click the name of the product that you want to edit.
3. From the product details page, click a product media item to see the Preview media page.
4. Click Add ALT text.
5. Enter your alt text, and then click Save ALT text.
6. Click the X to exit the preview page.

Again, you won’t want to keyword stuff with your Alt text images. Instead, focus on only one or two keywords and be descriptive of the product. If a product has text on it make sure to include that.

A good example is the picture above of a bag of Doritos. In the Alt text they include the product name, flavor, size, and amount of product included. This tells the reader exactly what the image is without going overboard with copy.

Tip 9: Offer a Great User Experience 

You may have heard the term UX thrown around before – it stands for User Experience. In terms of an eCommerce website this means things like your website is easy to navigate, visitors can find products they’re looking for, it’s easy to add items to a shopping cart and checkout.

How do SEO and UX work together? SEO drives traffic to your site, and UX gets that traffic to convert. 

You should take these factors into consideration to create a great UX experience.

• Navigation – you want your navigation to be as simple as possible. Visitors should be able to go to any page and know how to go to a different location. A great feature to include is a search function. Proving an intuitive and easy to use navigation can improve the customer search experience and boost conversion rates.
• Site Speed – for eCommerce Consumers say their ideal speed is two-seconds. If your site is too slow there’s a good chance shoppers will leave and go to a competitor instead. PageSpeed Insight is a great free tool for checking your site’s speed. 

Mobile Friendly – In 2021, 72.9 percent of all retail e-commerce is expected to be generated via m-commerce. That’s why your site needs to work and look great on both desktop and mobile. Make sure your homepage, navigation, images, and copy all display correctly on mobile devices. Go through the process of purchasing a product and ensure that process is seamless. Shoppers will immediately switch to a different site if they experience any issues.

Final Thoughts on SEO Shopify Tips

Deploying these tips across your Shopify store can be all the difference in driving real clicks to your website. If you are not quite ready to take your SEO strategy into your own hands, reach out to an e-commerce SEO expert to get started.

Author Bio: Cassandra Highbridge is the CRM Engagement Marketing Specialist at Unstack. Unstack’s no-code landing page templates and optimized eCommerce page components give merchants control over product pages, collections, and more.

The post 9 SEO Shopify Tips to Optimize Your E-commerce Website appeared first on LinkGraph.

And in the age of digital marketing, being discoverable on the world’s biggest search engines is not just helpful but necessary. So, how can your business go from invisible to visible? This guide will help you better understand what search visibility is and how it works, as well as provide you with some techniques to help your website gain greater search visibility.

What Is Search Visibility?

Search visibility or “site visibility” is a score shown as a percentage. This score represents how often your website will be seen and clicked on by people Googling any of the keywords you rank for. While just an estimate based on a formula, search visibility indicates how your website performs compared to other websites ranking for the same keywords.

Also referred to as search engine visibility and SEO visibility, this number offers a numeric way to measure your website’s search engine presence.

Your visibility number or visibility % is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that shows an estimate of how many people will view your website compared to your competition for the same keywords.

LinkGraph includes search visibility as a line graph and percentage in our GSC Insights overview page, so you can easily track your website’s organic search performance.

While the metric can be a bit more complicated than other SEO factors, the principle behind it is simple:

The higher your visibility score, the more people are likely to see your website in search engine results. If you have a 100% visibility score, it means that your website ranks as #1 in search results for every keyword your website appears for.

The lower your visibility score, the less frequently people see your website in search results. This is also to say that the lower your visibility %, the lower your pages appear in Google’s results on average.

Why Does Search Visibility Matter?

The word “visibility” can be a bit misleading when it comes to the value of this metric. While search visibility implies being seen by people using Google, it’s important to note that the number correlates with how many clicks you can expect your website to receive. And those clicks can equate to sales and greater momentum for climbing search engine results pages (SERPs) over time.

How Is Search Visibility Calculated?

So, how do SearchAtlas or other SEO platforms calculate search visibility? This metric is calculated based on your website’s keywords and where your pages rank among other keyword results. Unlike many other SEO metrics, this one allows you to see how your website is performing overall.

Here’s how it’s calculated:

1. First, we take all the keywords your website is tracking for. We apply a number to each that corresponds to how likely your page will be seen and clicked on among competing search results. 
2. Then, all of those search engine ranking click-through likelihood numbers are added up.
3. Once totaled, the number is then divided by the number of keywords your URL ranks for. This results in the average your site will be seen, or its search visibility. 

Corresponding Values by SERP Ranking

Where does the corresponding value in step one come from? We use Google’s prediction of the likelihood your site will be clicked on by searchers. This aspect of the metric is called the click-through rate (CTR). 

Google also takes into account how many people see your link in the search results and actually click on it. Google estimates that 31% of all people will click on the first result from an organic search. Therefore each of your URLs with a #1-position in Google search results will equate to 31%.

Position two has a CTR of 15.7% of people, and so on.

Calculating Search Visibility Example:

One of the easiest ways to illustrate how the search visibility formula works is to work through it once with simplified numbers. 

So, let’s calculate a search visibility percentage together.

• If a website has 10 keywords it ranks for in Google’s top 100 SERPs, and 5 of them are in position 1 and 5 of them are in position 3, we would multiply 5 by 28.5% and 5 by 11%. This would result in 142.5% and 55%.
• Next, we would add these together to get 197.5%.
• Because the website tracks for a total of 10 keywords, we would divide 197.5% by 10.
• The result is search visibility of 19.75%

Calculating Search Visibility Change

As we pointed out, search engine visibility is a great KPI for measuring the success of your SEO campaigns. If your visibility trends upward, your campaigns are successful. To illustrate, let’s take the above example, and recalculate it with a change in SERP rankings.

If the above website had one of their KW rankings drop to position 2, and the 5 that were in the 3rd position move to the 2nd position, the equation would change to this:

[4(28.5%) + 6(15.7%)] ÷ 10 = 20.82%

After calculating your new search visibility, you will subtract your new number from the previous number–the difference is a positive or negative change in your search visibility.

In our example (20.82% – 19.75%), the result is a search visibility increase of 1.07%–which means your SEO efforts are paying off!

What if I’m seeing an increase in my search visibility but not seeing an increase in conversions or traffic?

There are a few important things to keep in mind regarding search visibility:

1. Visibility is not the real number of people that click on your website.
2. SEO often has a slow-burn effect. So be patient.
3. If you see an increase in traffic but not conversions, you may want to improve your on-page content and design.

What Is Ranking Position?

A ranking position or SERP position is where your URL appears in the long list of results for Google searches. Search visibility only takes into account keywords where your site appears in the top 100  search results.

What is Organic Traffic?

Organic traffic is web traffic that arrives on your website from a search engine query. However, organic traffic does not include traffic from paid ads.

One of the greatest benefits of improving your ranking in organic search results is that SEO drives traffic to your site in an affordable way. (In fact, SearchAtlas gives you an estimate of the economic value of the amount of traffic that arrives on your page just from organic searches).

What Pages on My Website Count as Organic Traffic?

Any page that can be found through Google or another search engine counts as organic traffic. These pages are entry points to your website. Organic traffic can find your website through organic results of nearly any page on your website, including your:

• Homepage
• Blog post pages
• Resource or reference pages
• Landing pages
• Sales, services, or product pages
• About or contact

How to Check Your Search Visibility

Checking your website’s site visibility or search visibility is easy with SearchAtlas’s GSC Insights tool. All you have to do is

1. Login. Then select the GSC Insights tool Overview dashboard.
2. Scroll down to the Site Performance.
3. The Site Visibility graph shows your website’s search visibility percentage and historic site visibility performance.

Measuring Your SEO Efforts

Search visibility is one of the best factors for measuring the results or success of an SEO campaign or PPC campaign. With SearchAtlas, you’re able to track your results over the course of a campaign. With dates clearly visible across the y-axis, you can track your progress.

An upward trending line, despite day-to-day fluctuations, indicates that your site visibility is increasing.

A downward trending line indicates that your site is becoming less visible in Google results.

To find a specific date, hover your mouse over the graph. The date will appear. This can help you track your site visibility against changes in Google’s algorithms and other search engine ranking factors.

Keep in mind as you improve your content, you will boost your relevancy and the number of keywords you rank for. As you climb the SERPs, more people will visit your website and begin backlinking to your content. This will grow your website’s domain authority (or domain rating) and make huge differences in your SEO visibility.

Why Is My Search Visibility Zero?

If your website is not ranking for any keywords, your site visibility score will be 0.0%. This is likely because you have yet to target any keywords or implement a strategic SEO campaign.

Main Factors That Affect Search Visibility

One question that often comes up when discussing search visibility is “how does search engine visibility” relate to Search Engine Optimization? In the simplest terms, the better your search engine optimization, the higher your site visibility and visibility score.

So, the same factors that go into improving your search engine optimization increase your website’s search visibility. 

The most influential factors that affect your site visibility include:

• Your SERP ranking positions
• Keyword optimization
• Google’s algorithms

Other Factors That Can Increase or Decrease Search Visibility

While keywords, your SERP positions, and Google’s algorithms are the strongest factors that affect your search visibility, there is a multitude of small factors that go into how your page ranks and for what keywords. 

These SEO elements include:

• Local search visibility
• Local mobile visibility
• Paid search engine visibility (PPC)
• Page load times
• Visual appeal of your website
• Ease of use of your website
• Value of content on your website

How to Increase Your Website’s Search Visibility

Of course, the thing everyone wants to know is how to grow their website’s visibility on Google. There may be no quick-fix for a low site visibility score. But like training for a marathon, you want to take consistent, incremental steps to improve your website and individual pages’ search engine performance strategically. 

We recommend you focus your effort on these tactics:

1. Target Keywords on Page 2 of Google’s Results

Most websites track hundreds, even thousands of keywords. This makes it impossible to target each and every one. However, your visibility will increase exponentially if you can move your URLs from page 2 of the search engine results to page one. 

So, within SearchAtlas, go to Top Keywords under the GSC Insights tool. Then, sort by position, and identify pages that are ranking between positions 11 and 13. 

Then, improve your content on these pages using the Content Assistant tool.

2. Identify and Use Long-Tail Keywords And LSI Words

Long-tail and Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are often less competitive. This makes ranking for them a bit easier and allows you to target a cluster of keywords all at once.

Furthermore, 15.5% of all search queries on Google are first-time-ever Googled search terms, which means that people are always coming up with new ways to find what they’re looking for–and this gives you a better opportunity to rank.

What are long-tail keywords?

Long-tail keywords are phrases that people Google to find specific keyword results. Long-tail keyword phrases are usually three or more words in one search query. “Running shoes” would be an example of a standard keyword, whereas, “best running shoes for new long-distance runners” would be a long-tail keyword.

What are LSI keywords?

Google is very good at figuring out related terms to specific keywords. The related terms are considered Latent Semantic Indexing keywords.

For example, if someone were to Google “marathon training,” Google may suggest that you also look at “marathon training courses” or “marathon training tracking systems.” 

SearchAtlas provides users with both long-tail keywords and LSI keywords in the Content Assistant’s Terms menu.

3. Check Your Website’s Mobile Friendliness

Everyone has a smartphone nowadays, so it’s only natural that you optimize your website for mobile devices. Doing so will allow smartphone users to access your site with ease. Search engines use mobile-friendliness as one of their ranking factors. This is why it appears as part of the page experience report in Google Search Console and why we include it in our GSC Insights overview report.

Some of the best practices for mobile optimization include ensuring your webpage’s speed is suitable for mobile devices. Additionally, you should use mobile-friendly UX and pop-ups for advertising. Also, you may want to use compressed images so they load faster and size properly on any device.

Moreover, you should optimize your mobile-friendly content for the visually impaired. This includes using descriptive but brief alt text for your images and keywords that can easily be searched on voice search. To verify if your website is mobile-friendly, you can enter your URL into this Google tool to check. Making your web pages more mobile-friendly has the power to increase your rankings significantly because Google only includes mobile pages in its index.

4. Update Your Meta Tags

For this one, we will ask you to take a step back and think about the thought process you go through when using Google for a webpage. When the search results load, you likely skim the top few results and make a decision on which webpage best fits your need.

That information you skim–the title and short description beneath the title are your meta tags. If you improve these tags, you can improve your click-through rate, which will improve your ranking and visibility.

5. Invest in Backlinking

The more websites that link to your site, the more valuable Google’s algorithms perceive your content to be–and the higher your website will appear in their search results. So, using a backlinking service or DIY backlinking with guest posting to websites with high domain ratings with links to your page can help your website gain traction in Google’s results.

6. Increase Your Visitors’ Time on Page

One of the biggest signs of the quality of your content is how long visitors stay on your web pages. As people scroll down your page, interact with elements, and stay within your website, Google is taking note. And these metrics are rolled into how you rank in the SERPs.

So, improving your content’s readability, adding more media, and creating content with more value can boost your ranking and overall search visibility.

7. Check Internal Linking

Internal links are a wonderful way to keep users within your website. In some ways, your internal linking is like a game of Shoots-and-Ladders where the final destination is a confirmed purchase.

However, when a user comes across a broken internal link, your users may decide to go elsewhere. This increases your exit rate and has a negative effect on your webpage rankings.

Furthermore, when Google’s crawlers get stuck on a broken internal link, they’re likely to stop crawling your page and give your page a demerit. 

Fixing these issues can improve your search rankings. SearchAtlas makes identifying broken links easy with the Link Report of the Site Audit tool.

8. Audit Your Site

Page speed has become an influential factor in how your page will rank as a result of Google’s Core Web Vitals rollout.

Using the Page Explorers tool in Search Atlas, you will want to check your website’s health and speed. Click on the View button to begin cleaning up the biggest issues first to improve your ranking.

9. Meet and Exceed Security Standards

One of the simplest ways to improve your SERP positions is to safeguard your visitors with digital safety measures. 

Technical SEO techniques that can boost your website’s security levels include applying Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to establish encrypted links between a web server and browser’s online communication. 

You can also eliminate 404 pages and broken links by redirecting these pages or populating them with relevant content. 

Additionally, be sure to eliminate bad backlinks that can negatively affect your search rankings. Spoiler: SearchAtlas is developing a Toxic Backlinks tool to help website owners more easily identify toxic backlinks.

Search Visibility and Your Website

Search visibility is a visibility metric or calculation based on where your web pages appear among search engine rankings. Also referred to as SEO visibility, this number takes the average position of the keywords your site ranks for and shows you how likely a person Googling any keyword you track for is to find your website.

Improving your SEO visibility requires a multi-faceted approach to the technical and on-page side of your SEO. As you check tasks off your list, don’t forget to give them time to take effect then track your progress with SearchAtlas.

Become discoverable by tackling any factors that are negatively affecting your website’s search engine visibility with SearchAtlas. This easy-to-use tool allows you to track each indicator of your website’s SEO performance, including your

• Google position tracking for individual keywords
• Top ranking keywords
• Top performing pages
• Search visibility score
• Domain authority or domain rating
• Performance in relation to algorithm updates

Need assistance with your SEO strategy? LinkGraph is an industry leader in SEO and ready to help.

The post Search Visibility Guide appeared first on LinkGraph.

Retail SEO is a form of search engine optimization with specific techniques to work for e-commerce stores. While the fundamentals of SEO don’t necessarily change for retail, there are some specific best practices you can invest in to create a really strong online retail presence. 

Here’s a beginner’s guide to everything a retailer must know to improve their visibility and rankings in the search engine result pages.

Why Retail SEO Matters for Online Stores

So, why SEO? The easy answer is that consumers are relying on search engines to find new products like yours.

• 44% of people start their online shopping journey with a Google search. Without establishing a presence online, you’ll miss out on potentially almost half of your customer base.
• 37.5% of all traffic to ecommerce websites comes from organic search results. Ranking in Google for multiple keyword phrases allows your ecommerce brands to capture consumers that aren’t even aware of your brand.
• 23.6% of all ecommerce orders are directly tied to organic clicks. Not only are your consumers coming from online channels, but they are also converting once they find you.
• Around 95% of shoppers don’t go past the first page in the search results. If your ecommerce web pages don’t rank in the first 10 positions in the SERPs, it’s unlikely you’ll earn new customers from Google. 

So with all of these facts in mind, a well-designed and well-optimized website with great content should be any online retailer’s goal.

Benefits of SEO for Online Retailers

Still not convinced of the power of SEO for your retail website? Here are some benefits that any ecommerce retailer, big or small, can experience when amplifying their website’s SEO.

It Doesn’t Cost a Ton!

You don’t need a huge budget to implement a great SEO plan. 

In comparison to paying for digital advertising on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and Instagram, SEO is much more affordable to retailers.

Also, because ranking in search doesn’t end when your marketing budget runs out, it has long-term impacts that paid media cannot relate to.

By ranking in the top spots for high-value keywords, you can earn customers for perpetuity! This goes a long way to lowering your cost-per-acquisition in the long-term.

It is Customizable

You don’t always have to implement every single SEO advantage to get the best results. Rather you can customize SEO to meet your online goals.

For example, if you are trying to promote a specific product, completing extensive keyword research about the product can help give you ideas on what content to create about it.

Doubling down on your content production can be a useful marketing strategy, even if it is just creating a blog or two. 

Or, say you don’t have a problem getting customers to your website, but you struggle to make them convert. If this is the case, investing in page experience improvements can work wonders in both improving keyword rankings and encouraging the consumer to make a purchase or a phone call.

Since no one store is the same, no eCommerce website will be the same. A good SEO strategy will prioritize your ecommerce retail website’s unique goals and needs.

It Boosts Your Local SEO

For those online retailers that also have a brick-and-mortar store, your SEO efforts can also have a local impact.

Google works in a way where it will populate it’s map pack results based on the geographical location of the user. This can change even as you move around streets in your neighborhood. Your goal should be to show up within the map pack so users immediately see your brand when looking for local retailers.

Other local SEO efforts can also help those ecommerce retailers who have physical locations. Local SEO strategies like local citations, location-specific landing pages, and more are key for these types of retailers.

It Helps You Understand Your Customers

You may have a general idea about your customers, but do you really understand what questions or queries got them to arrive on your website? 

Luckily, SEO is all about data and metrics. The right software tools can tell you the types of questions that users are asking about products like yours.

You can also find out what kind of device they used to get to the landing page – whether it was a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop computer – and you can use this information to learn a lot about their shopping habits and improve the conversion journey on your website.

How to Optimize Product and Category Pages

Here are a few different ways to optimize your retail product and category pages for SEO performance and a better user experience for your customers.

1. Complete Comprehensive Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of any eCommerce SEO campaign because if it wasn’t for keywords, your consumers wouldn’t be able to find you. 

When done properly, your keyword research will drive every content marketing task you implement on your website.

There are plenty of different techniques you can use to perform your keyword research, as long as you focus on consumer intent. Typically, there are two different kinds of consumer intent.

Informational Keyword Intent

Informational keyword intent is used to describe the type of information the consumer is looking for. These searchers are usually looking for how-to blogs, 101 guides, or blog articles that provide them an answer to their question. 

Here are some examples of informational queries:

• how to get scratch out of wood table
• what is the difference between laminate and tile flooring
• what can help fix a broken laptop screen

Usually, consumers looking for this type of information are at the top of the marketing funnel. That means they are still gathering information about various products or retailers and are weighing their different options.

Commercial Keyword Intent

Commercial keyword intent is when a user is looking for information that helps them make a purchase, usually as fast as possible. 

These users know what they want but aren’t sure exactly where to get it. These users have more intent to actually purchase, and would be classified as being somewhere near the bottom of the marketing funnel.

For example, some keywords that show commercial intent include:

• buy wood repair kit
• cost difference between braces and invisalign
• bathroom remodelers in my area

Determining keyword intent may sound like a daunting challenge, but it’s really not! Here are some tips to make the task easier on yourself.

• Look at what’s already in the SERPs. Pay attention to what keywords are written in paid ads, the knowledge graphs, and the organic listings on the first two pages.
• Take a peek at the cost-per-click of keywords in GoogleAds. The higher the price, the more competitive a keyword is, meaning more users are searching for it.
• Use tools like LinkGraph Keyword researcher.
• Use our LinkGraph tool, the Keyword Researcher to to see what long-tail keywords, questions, and autocompletes people are searching for

Once you have an idea of the right keywords you want your product and category pages to rank for, you’ll need to start adding them to your ecommerce content.

2. Enhance Your Content

Not every piece of your website will need optimizing, so start where you will get the biggest bang for your buck – with the product descriptions. 

When writing product descriptions, you’ll want to ask yourself “What is the easiest way I can add crucial elements to this page? And how can I maximize visibility with my content?”

You can do this by:

• Adding keyword-rich detailed product descriptions
• Using the SEO content assistant to find other synonyms and Focus Terms to include in your product descriptions
• Ending your product description with a call to action
• Placing testimonials all-around your website with reviews from actual customers,
• Optimizing your images with alt tags, making sure you have the optimal product image size and using keywords within the file name.

Doing all of the above creates keyword-rich product pages, which will grab the attention of both users and search engine crawlers.

3. Ensure your Product Pages Are User-Friendly

If your website doesn’t adhere to your consumer’s needs, then how will you get them to convert? 

User experience is key in the world of SEO, not only because it ensures your website gives the users what they want, but Google won’t rank web pages that don’t meet their page experience standards. 

This means that if your page speed is slow, if your website is not responsive for mobile users, or if your consumers can’t easily find what they’re looking for, you have the potential of losing your organic rankings.

Some easy user-friendly tips are:

• Make sure your retail website is organized, with a clear navigational system
• Remove any excess clutter from your pages
• Place your contact information on the header and footer of each page, making it easy for your customers to contact you
• Make sure your web pages are responsive for all devices, as many people do online shopping from mobile phones or tablets
• Use consistent styling throughout every single product page so users can easily browse through multiple products

Remember, the more user-friendly your website is, the easier it will be for your customers to convert.

5 Tips for Increasing Traffic to Your Online Store with Retail SEO

Now that your website is properly optimized for sales, it’s time to drive traffic to your store! Here’s how you can do just that.

1. Add a CTA to your Meta Description

Google will show your meta description in your SERP result whenever it promotes it for relevant keyword phrases. Adding an enticing CTA to your meta description can help drive clicks to your website.

2. Add Products Schema to Improve your Organic CTR

Adding the products schema to your product page will make it so you appear in Google’s rich results.

This allows users to see key information about your products like a product image, price, product reviews, or even when an item goes on sale.

To learn more about how to add product schema to your pages, read our detailed schema markup guide.

3. Set Up Your Google My Business Listing

You want to ensure your clients can find you, and your GMB listing can be powerful for driving both web traffic and foot traffic.

Google My Business works by targeting users in your local area, and you don’t even have to have an actual storefront to have one. 

As long as the listing includes your contact information and a link to your website, you’ll be providing new and potential consumers useful information that they need to convert. Learn more about how to set up your Google My Business listing.

4. Make Content Marketing a Priority

Don’t forget about the power of a robust content strategy! Even if your product descriptions and retail store is optimized for SEO, you can’t forget about the rest of your website! 

Consistently producing quality blog content will send signals to Google that you’re an active website, which will work in your favor to enhance your ranking signals.

Blogs offer an opportunity to provide your consumers with informational content about your products and services and target new keyword phrases or long-tail queries. 

How-to-guides that detail how to use your products or seasonal gift guides are great for driving traffic and conversions.

5. Check Out What Your Competitors Are Doing

Take a peek at your competitors to get some inspiration for your own marketing strategy! 

You can look at what keywords are drawing customers to their store, what content themes they’re writing about, and how they promote themselves on social media. 

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when creating your own marketing ideas; use your competitors for inspiration on where your website can improve!

In the digital world we live in, consumer habits are changing on an almost daily basis, making it especially important for retail shop owners to enhance their shop’s visibility online. 

Our team of ecommerce SEO experts can help bring your website to new heights. Give  call today and we’ll get started.

The post Retail SEO Guide: Get More Eyes On Your Online Store appeared first on LinkGraph.