If you’re looking to increase your WooCommerce sales, we’ve got just the thing – 7 eCommerce SEO tips to get the job done!
Don’t worry, this won’t be a boring lecture – we’ll make it fun!
You’ll be sailing high on the eCommerce seas in no time!
When selling products online, ensuring your eCommerce store is optimized for search engines is important.
After all, the better optimized your online store is, the higher your website will appear in search engine results pages (SERPs).
That means more potential customers will find you, increasing your chances of making more sales.
So without further ado, let’s get started on boosting your WooCommerce sales with these tips!
What is SEO?
What are we talking about?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website (your store) on search engine results pages (SERPs) to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to the website.
This is achieved through a combination of on-page and off-page optimization techniques, such as keyword research, content optimization, and link building.
Even with that, there are some things you can do to increase your chances of winning that coveted spot on SERP.
Related: Wix SEO: How to Improve Your Website Rankings In Just Few Steps
Tip 1: Optimize Your Website for Mobile
In 2021, there were 7.1 billion mobile users.
At the end of 2021, mobile devices generated 54.4% of global website traffic.
That means mobile is the future. And if you look at your traffic sources, I bet mobile is on the top.
So how do you ensure your WooCommerce store is ready?
a. Make Sure Your Website Is Responsive
Making sure your website is mobile-friendly is essential for any eCommerce store.
Your store website should be designed to look great and be easy to use on any device, from phones to tablets to desktops.
This will ensure your customers have a great experience regardless of their device.
b. Utilize Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Besides taking care of responsiveness, you can go up a notch and get AM.
AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, is a framework for building web pages that are designed to load quickly on mobile devices.
See, AMP pages are built using a subset of HTML and are designed to be lightweight, so they can be loaded quickly even on slow internet connections.
These pages also prioritize content over other page elements, so users can easily find the information they are looking for without having to wade through a lot of ads or other distractions.
By using AMP, you can ensure that your Woocommerce store loads quickly, even on slow connections. This can help improve your search engine rankings and make your website more user-friendly.
Tip 2: Use SEO-Friendly URLs
How your URLs are presented can make or break your eCommerce SEO game.
a. Create Short, Descriptive URLs
Having descriptive, keyword-rich URLs can help search engines understand what your page is about and will help users find the content they are looking for.
Plus, it makes it easier for customers to remember your URL, making them more likely to visit your store again.
b. Use Keywords in Your URLs
Using keywords in your URLs is a great way to let search engines know what your page is about.
Try to include relevant keywords related to the product or service you are selling. This will help search engines better understand your content and help you rank higher in SERPs.
For example, if you are selling iPhone 12, include that in the URL of the product page.
Tip 3: Improve Site Speed
According to Portent, the first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates.
That applies to you as an online store owner.
There’s another study carried out by Unbounce in 2019. It showed that nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer.
So yes, speed is everything.
In fact, Google admitted that page speed is now a major ranking factor.
a. Use a Content Delivery Network
The first thing you need for your Woocommerce store is a use a content delivery network (CDN) can help speed up your website’s loading time.
A CDN, or content delivery network, is a group of servers that are distributed across different locations.
A CDN aims to provide users with faster access to web content by serving that content from a server that is geographically close to the user.
This can help improve the speed of an online store by reducing the distance that data travels between the user’s device and the server, which can help improve page load times and reduce the amount of time it takes for pages to become interactive.
Additionally, using a CDN can help reduce the load on a single server, which can improve the overall performance and scalability of an online store.
This all works towards making your store more user-friendly, and help you rank higher in SERPs.
b. Minimize JavaScript and CSS
Another tactic you can use to improve loading speed of your Woocommerce store is digging into the code.
You see, for your site to load, the browser must download requested files from the server
Minimizing your JavaScript and CSS files can help reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred between the server and the user’s device, which can help improve page load times.
Additionally, minimizing JavaScript and CSS can make your pages more efficient by removing unnecessary code and making your code more compact, which can help improve the overall performance of your website.
To minimize JavaScript and CSS, you can use tools like minifiers or compressors.
These tools can automatically remove unnecessary whitespace, comments, and other redundant code from your JavaScript and CSS files, making them smaller and more efficient.
You can then serve the minimized versions of your JavaScript and CSS files to your users, which can help improve the speed of your website.
Tip 4: Use Rich Snippets
Let me explain something.
Rich snippets are a way to provide additional information about your website’s content in the search results.
They are designed to give users a better idea of what your page is about, and can include things like images, ratings, and other information that can help your search result stand out from the others.
Rich snippets are created using a type of code called microdata, which is added to the HTML of your web page.
This is how they work…
When a user performs a search on a search engine, the search engine will look for microdata on the page and use it to create a rich snippet for your search result.
The rich snippet will then be displayed in the search results, along with the regular text from your page.
a. Take Advantage of Schema Markup
Using schema markup on your Woocommerce store can help search engines better understand your content and give you better visibility in SERPs.
Schema markup is a type of code you can add to your website that helps search engines understand the content on your pages.
And there are several types of these codes that can be useful for a WooCommerce store. Some examples include:
- Product schema, which can be used to provide detailed information about a product, such as its name, price, availability, and other details.
- Review schema, which can be used to show customer ratings and reviews for a product.
- Offer schema, which can be used to show information about a special offer or sale for a product.
- AggregateRating schema, which can be used to show the overall rating for a product, based on customer reviews.
b. Use Rich Snippets for Product Pages
As mentioned, rich snippets are a type of schema markup that can help search engines understand the content on your product pages.
They can also help increase your visibility in SERPs, making it easier for customers to find your products.
For example, you can add the Review schema and Offer schema on your product pages.
These snippets will show up on the SERPs, increasing the click-through rate and hopefully, conversions.
Tip 5: Optimize Your Product Pages
This is where the magic happens.
Besides posts, pages can be indexed and do show up on search results.
a. Include Keywords in Title and Meta Descriptions
Title and Meta descriptions show up on Google.
Including keywords in both your title and meta description can help search engines better understand your content and make it easier for customers to find your products.
Be sure to include relevant keywords related to the product you are selling.
b. Optimize Product Descriptions for SEO
A product description is a written explanation of a product’s features, benefits, and other details.
It is typically included on a product page on an e-commerce website and is designed to help potential customers learn more about the product and decide whether it is right for them.
Optimizing your product descriptions for SEO can help search engines better understand your content and make it easier for customers to find your products.
In fact, it improves the chances of your products showing up on Google. So be sure to use keywords related to the product you are selling and clear and concise descriptions.
Related: How to Write Product Descriptions that Will Sell
Tip 6: Make Sure Your Site Is Secure
Right off the bat, many search engines, including Google, now give a slight ranking boost to websites that use SSL.
This is because secure sites help to protect users’ privacy and security, and search engines want to provide their users with the best possible experience.
This means that if your Woocommerce store is not secure, you won’t rank!
a. Ensure Your Site Is Using HTTPS
Having a secure website is essential for any eCommerce store.
HTTPS is a secure protocol that encrypts information sent between your website and visitors’ browsers.
This can help protect your customers’ data and make your website more user-friendly.
The best way to get this done is by installing an SSL certificate.
SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a technology used to encrypt data transmitted between a user’s web browser and a website.
It is designed to prevent hackers and other unauthorized parties from intercepting and reading this data, which can help protect sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or personal details.
Besides, ranking, SSL can help improve a website’s conversion rate, which is an important factor in SEO.
When a user sees that a website is using SSL, they may be more likely to trust the website and feel comfortable providing sensitive information, such as their credit card number.
This can help to increase the chances of making a sale, and can also help to improve a website’s overall performance.
b. Implement Best Practices for Website Security
Implementing best practices for website security can help protect your website from malicious attacks.
This includes ensuring your website is regularly backed up and always updated with the latest security updates.
According to InfoSecurity Group, Ransomware attacks happen every 10 seconds.
Take some steps to prevent this from happening and protect your reputation.
Tip 7: Increase Internal Linking
This is another one of the most ignored eCommerce SEO tips.
Internal linking is the practice of linking to other pages on your own website from within your web content.
Doing this can help to improve the navigation and user experience of your Woocommerce store, and can also help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website’s content.
Internal linking can be useful for SEO in a few different ways.
First, it can help search engines discover and index the pages on your website. When a search engine crawls your website, it will follow the links on each page to discover new content.
These internal links can help the search engine discover more of your website’s pages, improving its coverage and increasing the chances that your content will appear in the search results.
Second, internal linking can help to distribute link equity, or the value that is passed through links, throughout your website.
When a page on your website receives a link from an external website, it will gain some link equity.
Pass some of that link equity to other pages on your website, which can help to improve their ranking in the search results.
To get this right;
a. Utilize Anchor Text
An anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. It is the part of the link that users can see and click on, and it is usually highlighted in a different color to the rest of the text on the page. For example, in the following sentence:
“Learn more about anchor text on our website,”
The words “anchor text” are the anchor text. When a user clicks on this text, they will be taken to the page that the link is pointing to.
Anchor text is important for eCommerce SEO.
It provides context and information about the page that the link is pointing to.
And search engines use anchor text to understand the content of a page and how it relates to the rest of the website.
Using descriptive and relevant anchor text can help search engines understand the content of your pages and improve their ranking in the search results.
In addition to its role in SEO, anchor text can also be important for usability and user experience.
By using clear and descriptive anchor text, you can help users understand the purpose of a link and what they can expect to find on the page that it points to.
This can help to improve the overall user experience of your website.
b. Link to Relevant Pages
Linking to other relevant pages on your website can help search engines better understand your content and make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for.
Try to link to product pages related to your selling product or service.
Final Thoughts
Using the 7 eCommerce SEO tips outlined above, you can optimize your WooCommerce store for the search engine results pages and increase your chances of making more sales.
While SEO may seem daunting initially, it doesn’t have to be!
With a bit of time and effort, you can create a website that search engines love, resulting in more organic traffic to your store.
So don’t be intimidated, and have fun optimizing your store!