SEO for ecommerce Part 1

Introduction

Designed to guide the optimizing the pages of an online store, to build traffic, and improve your page rankings

Find who you are targeting

Common mistakes in ecommerce websites

What you should know before watching this course

If not a web developer use Shopify

Two examples: Shopify and Adobe Muse

Google Analytics

What is SEO for ecommerce

SEO: is the process of assessing the current on and off page factors of a website and improving these factors to boost rankings in a search engine like Google.

SEO is not a list of tasks that you check off and your site instantly rockets to the top shot.

There is a big connection to a sites traffic and its search ranking. You must focus on building traffic in order to build rankings

Driving more traffic to your site through social media or through backlinks from bigger sites can do more for your search rankings

Understanding on-page vs. off-page SEO

On and off page factors refer to the changes you make directly on the site itself versus things that are done on external locations

On page factors include elements like the keywords, written content, heading, titles, etc, page urls and the way that these are structured, and internal links, such as footers or navigation systems

Foundation of off-page SEO is links to your website from other sites on the web like social media, reputable industry sites, blog posts, or product review sites.

On page can be tweaked off page can always improve

The importance of usability

Important rule of Ecommerce SEO is to ensure that your site is easy to use for customers and potential buyers first.

Where site owners go wrong:

Start crafting content to improve rankings, but it stops resonating and appealing to the visitors of the site.

Focus on acquiring visitors through SEO

Worry about retention or keeping them on the site

Keywords for a major heading but you don't need to stuff in the headline

Always design and write for the customers and visitors first and search engines second

Focus on proper design techniques

Exploring how SEO affects the buying process

User becomes aware of a need or problem that they need solved

They begin to explore that need and seek out a solution

They begin to evaluate and determine which one to buy

They make their purchase

Funnel Format where the widest part of a funnel gets smaller as we approach the bottom

Target the audience specifically

Setting expectations and establishing realistic goals for your SEO results

Rankings go up or down on a weekly or daily basis

Googles job is to find a relevant and useful result for your search

Target a niche

Target specific searches and achieve higher conversion rates for less visitors.

Making more sales for a more targeted group of potential buyers

Google takes into account many factors including the age of your site and the number of inbound links

Buying google adwords or advertising on the web can be a big help

Understanding exactly who your customer is

Target market research

Look at the common trends

What type of content do you prefer: video, blog posts, articles, et cetera?

First identify with themes in customers that can be applied to your keywords.

Target those personas that are most likely to purchase from your site, not just visit.

Creating buyer personas

The goal is to create a person or identity that exactly matches the type of buyer your site is going to attract

These includes a customer's age, gender, location, job titles, and any interests they may have.

Frame these characteristics into a real person, the key is to identify exactly what problem the buyer needs to solve and how your product can solve that problem for them.

Buyer personas are a helpful tool for making sure SEO efforts are on target and for correctly bringing in the right kind of traffic.

Using simple and long tail keyword research

Keyword search is probably the most important aspect in SEO strategy

Simple keywords: Generally one or two words targeting a broad product or surface (they are also competitive)

Long tail keywords are generally three or more words to describe a specific product or service

The search volume is lower and easier to target for buyers looking for the specific thing

Simple words the search volume is the highest and long tail volume is the lowest.

Getting the most out of keyword research

Write down an initial list of keywords that a buyer may enter.

Use googles own suggestion feature to help expand your initial list and see what similar searches are being made.

Try inputting several different searches into the bar and seeing what other suggestions come up

In google adwords on the google keyword planner homepage:

First we need to click on the area that says “search for new keywords using a phrase or service”

Fill in the areas below

Third input our product category

Click next get ideas, but the important part is to click on where it says “keyword ideas”

This generates a list of keywords ideas related to the information entered

This is sorted by competition and the average monthly number of searches

Input your keywords into a spreadsheet

Make sure your list includes both short and long tail keywords to maximize your exposure to the market.

Carrying out competitor research

Analyze which of your competitors are ranking at the top and why that are there and how you can differentiate yourself.

First perform a search in google for each of the keywords you have identified

SEMrush to analyze other top ranking sites for that particular keyword

Enter domain, keyword, url

Identify your competitors

“Side by side SEO comparison”

Using this is important information about competitors sites. Things like title and meta description.

Differentiate yourself as much as possible and capitalize on a smaller segment of the market.

Harnessing page titles and meta information

On page factors are the specific elements that we can modify for the better search results.

Most important is the page title

Page title is displayed in the top browser tab

Keep it 50 to 60 characters long

Must use a unique page title for each page on your website

Google might penalize for repetition

Meta information is a block of text that appears below the page title and the page URL

Avoid stuffing

Exploring page structure: Headings, copy, and images

Headings, written content, and images

Headings:

Common in the modern web to have a large prominent block of text

Should be set up using the heading tag

Your page heading is the first element that a user sees

Written content:

Description of product

Important keywords

Images:

Use alt tags for images

Developers tools

Crafting internal links to help search engines explore your site

Its important that internal and external links aren't lost or buried where search spiders can't find them

Well crafted links accomplish the goal in SEO which is to improve the user experience and make navigating the site easy.

It encourages users to explore deeper into your site and can have a major impact on rankings and balance rates

Any link created that points to another web page contains a “anchor text”

Wrapped in a link tag

Relevant anchor texts is extremely beneficial for telling search engines what the page is all about.

Earning inbound link to raise your ranking

Building links from external websites or earning those links is important for improving those results

A properly structured link from a very trustworthy site can give you a huge boost in rankings

Highly prioritize by search engines because they are seen as one of the most difficult factors to manipulate

A reputable site must agree to place a link from their site to yours

Sites with a pagerank of five or higher are generally very high ranking and very reputable

Pagerank give a number out of ten. Higher the number the better. Anything better than a 5 is awesome

Work hard to build quality inbound links

Quality over quantity matters