People are becoming more interested in starting an e-commerce business and for a good reason.
As the Internet’s power continues to grow and its number of users increases, the potential for business is growing bigger and bigger. With that said, the growing power of the Internet is one of the reasons an e-commerce business is a lucrative choice for a lot of people.
Of course, it’s still a new phenomenon so people are bound to make mistakes when they’re setting up an e-commerce business. Although to circumvent these, there are plenty of references online that can help. Nonetheless, mistakes are unavoidable because it is part of growth and learning.
On that note, if you want to avoid mistakes that people make when starting an e-commerce business then this article will help you. By reading this article, you will have a more proactive approach against common e-commerce SEO mistakes. At the same time, you’ll be able to prevent or solve your errors quite easily. Don’t worry if you commit these mistakes as you can always solve these as soon as you identify them.
Below are five common errors that people make when it comes to e-commerce SEO. Alongside these are how you can avoid these errors or resolve them for yourself.
1. Not using web analytics
When it comes to search engine optimization, people tend to get too caught up in bringing high traffic into their website. Hence, they put all their eggs in one basket and focus on bidding for high-traffic keywords as much as possible.
Although high-traffic keywords are okay and they will bring in a lot of leads and potential customers onto your site, they might not be the best metric to measure. Even if these leads go to your site, they may be the least likely to convert based on the products or services that you’re offering.
A keyword that has a high search volume can lead to high traffic, but you need to ask yourself a question first. Will the people who click through to your site want what you’re offering in the first place? Are they your target audience?
If not, then you’re wasting your time using keywords that will not help you with your conversion rate.
Improve your conversions by only using keywords that are relevant to your business, even if they are ranked as low traffic or there isn’t much competition on them. Web analytics can help you better understand which keywords work best for your business.
The right analytics can help keep track of conversions based on the keywords that you’ve used. The results of the analytics should help you optimize your e-commerce site for the better.
2. Not providing unique titles for each product page
One simple but frequent mistake that people make when it comes to search engine optimization is that they forget to provide unique titles for each product page on their site.
The reason a unique title for each product page is important is that the title is how search engines identify the content of the page and determine how relevant it is to users.
Of course, it is understandable that it can be challenging to look for a unique title for each product page if you’re an e-commerce store for a variety of similar items with different models. If that is the case, then you can create a model for how you name similar items. You can try naming them based on the brand or model and then the keyword.
There are other rules for when you’re naming a product page’s title. Aside from having a unique title for each product, make sure that you also keep the titles 60 characters or less. Also, avoid adding in the name of your store or site in the title of the product page as it’s an unnecessary step.
Focus on adding the right amount of keywords and make sure that you don’t skip out on the product descriptions as well.
3. Lack of mobile-responsiveness
Mobile responsiveness is the ability of a website ‒ in this case, your e-commerce store ‒ to be easy-to-navigate by mobile and/or tablet users.
There are more than five billion mobile users this year which is a growth of about 100 million in comparison to the previous year. These statistics show that investing in mobile-responsiveness is a continuing need in the industry as well.
If your e-commerce business lacks mobile-responsiveness, then you are neglecting millions of people as a target audience. This is a monumental mistake that people too often forget to think about, especially when they’re just starting out with their e-commerce business.
Luckily, there are a lot of e-commerce platforms that prepare mobile responsiveness either in their themes or as an additional plug-in. If you’re unsure about whether your site is mobile-ready, then you can look-up tools online that will help you scan your site. In fact, Google has one tool where you type in your site’s URL and it will tell you how mobile-ready it is.
Converting your website to become more mobile-friendly will depend on the platform that you choose to host your store on. If it’s on WordPress, then it can all be a matter of a new theme or an additional plug-in.
4. Over-optimizing content with keywords
Keywords are a big part of being discoverable and ranking high on search engine results. However, if you think that cramming a ton of keywords into your web content is the way to go, then you are wrong.
This isn’t the best tactic to hack your way to a higher search engine ranking. In fact, it can have the opposite effect.
If you’re not careful about keyword stuffing, then you can end up receiving a banishment from search engines. Plus, you won’t receive conversions that way because you aren’t providing relevant services or products to your target consumers.
You want to optimize your e-commerce store, sure, but you shouldn’t overdo it.
The best way to optimize your online store for search engines is to make an excellent copy that is both relevant to your consumers and compelling enough for them to convert. This is where excellent content or copywriting comes into play for you.
Aside from that, keyword research is also a crucial part of creating great content for your eCommerce business. The key is to make sure that the keywords are naturally embedded in the content. Awkward phrasing or inclusion can deter site visitors.
You can try including synonyms in the content as well, instead of the entire keyword itself so that you don’t have to douse your content with the keyword until your visitors are sick of seeing it.
5. Having duplicate content
Another common and awful e-commerce SEO mistake that beginners make is having duplicate content on their site.
If someone else has made that content before, chances are, they’ll rank higher than you in the search engine results. Aside from that, it’s not a good look to have duplicate content with someone.
Make sure that you create custom headings and descriptions as much as possible. This will help you rank better and is a great choice for optimizing your content.
Above are some of the most common mistakes people make when it comes to optimizing their e-commerce businesses for search engines. Avoid these and modify your sites to circumvent these issues and you are sure to be rewarded, either in conversions or click-throughs.