Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the essential process you need if you are looking to boost your business. This is especially true if you are an e-commerce business. E-commerce websites are one of the best places to implement SEO because you can directly impact your website’s performance.
Recently, the competition in the e-commerce market has become even fiercer. SEO has become a major process with Google’s algorithm changing how it ranks e-commerce websites. With proper SEO, you can ensure your e-commerce website ranks at the peak of search engine results.
However, there are common e-commerce SEO mistakes that people fail to correct. And without knowing how to fix them, you won’t be able to get the ranking you deserve. Have no worries, however, because we will go over a comprehensive list of common e-commerce SEO mistakes and how to solve them.
What’s e-Commerce SEO?
e-Commerce SEO is like giving directions to find online stores. It helps people discover shops on the internet. When someone searches for something to buy, like “cool shoes,” e-commerce SEO makes sure your shoe store website pops up on Google’s first page.
It’s like putting up a big sign that says, “Hey, come check out our awesome shoes!” This way, more people visit the store, and the store owner sells more shoes. So, e-commerce SEO is super important for online businesses because it helps them get noticed and sell more stuff.
Common e-Commerce SEO Mistakes
You should now have a more concrete idea of e-commerce SEO. Let’s expand on that knowledge and discuss businesses’ common e-commerce SEO mistakes. I will also share how you can overcome them.
1. Lack of Keyword Research
One of the most common e-commerce SEO mistakes that happen is a lack of keyword research. Businesses fail to do comprehensive keyword research, which leads them to miss opportunities to target and convert potential customers. These customers are looking for the very thing the business is selling.
Keywords are vital for businesses because they will allow your website and its content to rank in search engines. Therefore, failing to find and target a wide range of keywords will lead an e-commerce website not to generate high enough traffic. e-Commerce SEO services ensure that you get those relevant keywords.
Take, for example, the keyword “best baseball gloves” This isn’t the best keyword you could have picked because it’s too generic. Instead, you need to use the keyword as a starting point and branch out. The more specific you can make your keyword, the better your results will be. The best keywords for baseball gloves would be something like these:
- Best baseball gloves for 10-year-old
- Best baseball gloves for outfielders
- Best baseball catcher mitt for beginners
These keywords are specific and relevant to particular audiences while having good search volume and little competition.
How to fix it:
- Start by thinking about what words people might use to find your product.
- Using keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush will help find popular search terms.
- Look for keywords with many searches but not too much competition.
- Make a list of all the keywords that seem relevant to your product.
- Figure out what keywords your competitors are using.
- Think about different variations of your keywords and add them to your list.
- Group similar keywords together into categories.
- Choose the best keywords from each category to use on your website.
2. Poor Website Structure and Navigation
Along with a lack of keyword research, poor website design is another common e-commerce SEO mistake. A neat and organized website structure is important for all types of websites, but it’s doubly important for e-commerce websites.
Just think about it: if you visit a website, do you want to waste time looking for what you came in? No, you should see what you want within a couple of scrolls or clicks. Websites that have a poor structure, slow loading speed, and other technical SEO problems are ranked lower by Google and other search engines.
Another major point connected with website structure and navigation is UI and UX. UI stands for User Interface, while UX stands for User Experience. When building your website, you need to pay close attention to these two topics. These two are important for website structure and navigation because they make websites easy to use and understand. When UI and UX are done well, websites are more enjoyable to use. It helps people find what they need quickly and without frustration.
How to fix it:
- Begin by organizing your products into clear categories and subcategories.
- Make sure your website has easy-to-find menus and search bars.
- Use descriptive labels for navigation links, like “Shop Women’s Shoes” instead of just “Shoes.”
- Keep your website blueprint simple and easy to understand.
- Test your e-commerce website on different devices to ensure it works well for everyone.
- Ask friends or family to try navigating your website and give feedback.
- Use websites like PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to determine your website speed and condition.
- Think about hiring an expert web designer to help improve your website structure.
3. Thin or Duplicate Content
You might have heard this before: that content is king. So, posting poor, thin, or duplicate content on your e-Commerce website might be bad. But this happens so often in so many e-commerce businesses or websites that it has become one of the common e-commerce SEO mistakes.
Content is the only medium through which businesses can implement their well-researched keywords. It is how Google and other search algorithms check whether a website is relevant and give it its ranking.
If you are running an e-commerce website or business, you must be especially careful about weak content. All e-commerce websites have product descriptions, which must be informative and strong. Poor, thin, or duplicate content won’t properly convert visitors into purchasing these products. Also, weak content won’t rank your pages on Google because the algorithm won’t find it unique or relevant enough to rank.
Therefore, you mustn’t be posting poor, thin, or duplicate content, no matter how easy it might be. Rather, you should be posting genuine and well-written content, even if you have to slow your posting schedule.
How to fix it:
- Write detailed descriptions for each product.
- Include helpful information like size guides and FAQ’s.
- Add customer reviews and testimonials to product pages.
- Create blog posts with useful tips and advice related to your products.
- Use high-quality images plus videos to showcase your products.
- Avoid copying content from other websites.
- Update your website regularly with fresh content.
- Use free hacks to improve your SEO content.
4. Neglecting Mobile Optimization
Mobile devices are super important for going online. If your website isn’t good on mobile, you’re in trouble. Approximately 4.32 billion peoples use phones to browse the internet, so they might leave if your site doesn’t work well on their tiny screens. Google says more than half of people will leave if your site loads too slowly.
A key indicator of how well you have optimized your website for mobile devices is to check if it is mobile-responsive. If a website is mobile responsive, then it will look good even on small screens. This allows visitors to read your content, click buttons, and easily navigate your site. Most importantly, the more mobile and responsive your website is, the higher your website ranks because the Search engine algorithm prefers responsive websites.
So, ensuring your online store works great on phones and tablets is essential. If not, you might lose lots of customers. Let’s look at some mistakes to avoid for mobile websites.
How to fix it:
- Use a responsive website design that can adjust to different screen sizes.
- Optimize images and videos for faster loading on mobile devices.
- Make buttons and links easy to tap with your fingers.
- Keep forms and checkout processes simple and easy to use on mobile.
- Test your website on different mobile devices to ensure compatibility.
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to identify and fix any mobile optimization issues.
- Stay updated on mobile design trends and best practices.
5. Ignoring Technical SEO Issues
No site will ever operate smoothly on your first try, and it will not work on the second or third try. But it will if you run a proper website audit, check it, and resolve all the technical issues it might have.
Too many times, e-commerce website owners fail to do a proper audit and deal with technical issues they might have. This is why ignoring them has become one of the common e-commerce SEO mistakes. But with care and attention, you can easily ensure your site operates smoothly at its full speed all the time.
Here are some of the most common technical SEO issues that must be resolved:
- 404 Error: When a page can’t be found, it shows a 404 error. It confuses visitors and hurts SEO.
- Redirection: It means sending users and search engines from one URL to another. It’s important for maintaining link equity and user experience.
- Broken Link: When we bring links from another website but they become broken, those are called broken links. Links can become broken for many reasons. Broken links are bad for your website because they can lead to lower ranking in the ranking.
- Canonical tags: Ignoring canonical tags confuse search engines about which page is the main one, affecting SEO.
- Sitemap: Search engines will have a harder time finding and indexing all the pages. This can potentially lead to lower visibility in search results if we don’t implement a sitemap for the website.
- Robots.txt: Without a proper robot.txt search engine, crawlers will access all parts of the site, potentially indexing sensitive or irrelevant pages.
How to fix it:
- Regularly audit your website for technical problems.
- Fix broken links and crawl errors.
- Optimize website speed for faster loading times.
- Ensure proper URL structure and use canonical tags.
- Implement schema markup to enhance search engine understanding.
- Use XML sitemaps to aid search engines in crawling your site.
- Monitor website performance using tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
6. Neglecting Local SEO Opportunities
Just because you are running an e-commerce website doesn’t mean you should neglect your local SEO opportunities. Running an e-commerce website doesn’t mean all your traffic will come from afar. Suppose you run a business selling popular, useful, or essential products. In that case, people around you will also want to buy them.
Find out more reasons why Local SEO services are important for business
For the best result from Local SEO, you must always keep three things in mind: proximity, prominence, and relevance. Here is what each of them are about:
- Proximity: Proximity means how close a business is to the person searching. Google aims to show businesses near the searcher’s location.
- Prominence: Prominence talks about how well-known a business is online. This includes factors like reviews, links, and social media presence.
- Relevancy: Relevancy is about how well a business matches what the user is searching for. Google likes to show results that are relevant to the user’s query and location.
Not doing local SEO means people won’t see you on the internet. Thus, you will lose loads of potential customers because of a misunderstanding.
How to fix it:
- Include local keywords in product descriptions and metadata.
- Create location-specific landing pages for different regions.
- Optimize Google My Business listing with accurate information.
- Encourage customers to leave ratings or reviews mentioning their location.
- Use local business directories and citations to improve visibility.
- Participate in local events and sponsorships for community engagement.
- Get Local SEO service from an expert for better results.
- Collaborate with local influencers or bloggers for promotion.
Conclusion
So, you have made it to the end of my content, which contains the common e-commerce SEO mistakes and how to fix them. Now that you know about these common mistakes, you should follow my guide to solving them quickly. Google is constantly making changes or improvements to the algorithm. If you don’t want to lose your ranking, then you can’t afford to make even one of these mistakes.
While some of these mistakes are easy to fix by yourself, consider hiring an SEO expert such as myself. With my many years of experience with SEO and e-commerce website optimization, I can make your website run smoothly and rank highly on Google.
FAQ’s
Q. What are the most common e-commerce SEO mistakes?
The most common mistakes include:
- Neglecting keyword research.
- Poor website structure.
- Thin content.
- Technical SEO issues.
- Lack of mobile optimization.
- Neglecting product descriptions and images.
Q. How long does it take to see results from SEO efforts?
SEO results can change depending on various factors, such as competition, website age, and the effectiveness of your strategies. Generally, it may take several weeks to months to see significant improvements in your search rankings and organic traffic.
Q. Is it necessary to hire an SEO expert for e-commerce websites?
While hiring an SEO expert can be beneficial, especially for larger e-commerce websites, many basic SEO tasks can be handled in-house with proper knowledge and tools. It ultimately depends on your budget and the complexity of your SEO needs.
Q. Can social media impact e-commerce SEO?
While social media marketing doesn’t directly impact your rankings, a strong social presence can indirectly benefit SEO by driving traffic to your website, thus increasing brand visibility and generating backlinks from social shares.
Q. What role does user experience play in e-commerce SEO?
User experience in websites is a vital factor regarding SEO. Search engines prioritize websites that bring a positive experience for users. Factors such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, easy navigation, and high-quality content all contribute to a better user experience, thus leading to higher search rankings and increased conversions.