SEO for E-Commerce Principles

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Definition of SEO for e-commerce

What exactly is SEO for e-commerce – and why is it important? 

Well, SEO for e-commerce is a strategy that helps web retailers rank higher in search engine results. An e-commerce website that’s well-designed and optimized for SEO - and contains high-quality content - will rank better in search engines such as Google. This should increase the e-commerce store’s visibility and drive more traffic to the site. 

Unlike SEO for content-focused websites, SEO for e-commerce is more than just adding keywords, writing blog posts, and gaining links. You need to understand how search engines work and what they reward to generate more leads and, critically, to drive more e-commerce conversions. That means having a solid working knowledge of SEO for e-commerce, applying Google’s guidelines, analyzing buyer intent, and implementing it strategically.

General fundamentals of SEO 

Before you start thinking about specific SEO tactics for e-commerce, it’s important get the basics right. The fundamental principles of SEO apply to e-commerce sites too. So, before you deep-dive into e-commerce SEO, make sure you’ve addressed the fundamental issues. These include:

• Navigation. Your site should be well-structured, so search engines and users can quickly and easily find what they’re looking for.
• Internal links. Internal links help Google understand and rank your site and figure out which pages are important.
• Avoid clutter. Cluttered websites decrease conversions and hide important calls to action.
• Create unique content. Your content should be interesting, valuable, and relevant to users.
• Include alt text for images. Alt text helps search engines crawl websites and improves SEO.

There’s a lot more you can do, but these are essential tactics to get right from the outset. You can build upon these fundamentals with specific tactics for e-commerce sites and we’ll cover those as we proceed through this lesson.

Search and the customer journey

The e-commerce customer journey can take a customer from discovering a product online right through to purchasing it. SEO plays an important role at each stage of this journey, and you can use it to maximize sales and conversions. While many e-commerce transactions are completed via paid search, organic search also plays a role. 

You can use SEO for e-commerce to deliver valuable, free search traffic and drive different actions from searchers, depending on where they are in the purchase journey. Possible actions include:

1. Product Discovery or Awareness from searchers who are at the start of their purchase journey
2. Purchase Consideration or Decision from searchers who are looking for information to help them decide to purchase
3. Transaction or Conversion from searchers who are ready to buy

Keywords and content

Keywords and content form the cornerstones of any SEO strategy and they’re relevant at all stages of the customer journey. This also holds true when it comes to SEO for e-commerce. When doing keyword research to get ideas for content, it's a good idea to focus on longtail keywords that people use to discover, research, and buy your products. 

You can review your keyword lists using tools like Ubersuggest, Moz, Ahrefs or the Google Ads Keyword Planner. Use what you know about your products and how people search to refine the lists and identify keywords for the three key phases in the buyer's journey. Then you can create content around these topics and pepper relevant keywords on appropriate pages of your e-commerce site.

You can get additional ideas by including competitors' pages in your keyword research to see if your competitors are targeting certain keywords or themes in their content. You can do this by adding a competitor page to the Google Keyword Planner or whatever keyword tool you’re using, and the tool will scan the pages for keyword ideas and present you with more keyword ideas based on your competitor's content. 

Doing this is a good way to generate ideas you hadn't previously thought of and allows you to compete for searches from potential customers.  

Awareness stage

You can use the customer journey to decide where to feature specific types of content on your e-commerce site. Let’s focus on the first stage of the customer journey – the awareness or discovery phase – and see how it relates to e-commerce content.

When it comes to product, service, or brand discovery, optimizing your e-commerce site's content to drive organic search traffic is a cost-effective way to introduce what you sell to potential customers who are searching online. 

To understand where customers are in this early stage of their journey, think of it like this. The buyer has identified a need or want that they wish to fulfil, and they are using Google to assist them in finding potential solutions, but they don't know about you or your products yet. At this stage, they are trying to find solutions to their needs or problems.

Awareness content

Keeping this in mind, try to think of the types of searches that people might do if they were looking for a product to resolve a need. The type of content you create for your e-commerce site might focus on a problem your product solves. You might consider framing it as an answer to a question. 

For example, people might type questions into search engines like, "what options are there for reducing humidity in summer" or "what are the top 10 travel destinations in Europe”. Your content could answer these questions.

When people search for content on these topics, remember that they are not experts and they don't have a lot of information on hand apart, from the problem or need they want to resolve. The content should focus on what the problem is, how the product can resolve the need, and the main benefits or top reasons why it is the best option. Creating this type of content can help people discover your products and become aware of potential solutions.

Buyer intent

Your keyword research can also inspire content ideas. However, in e-commerce - and particularly at the awareness stage - it’s a mistake to limit your keyword research to the most relevant keywords in your industry. Yes, your keywords must be relevant and popular, but it’s also crucial to factor in buyer intent. Buyer intent is the intention behind a search query. You can identify it by analyzing the specific terms and phrases people use when searching online.

The two most common forms of intent are:

• Informational keyword intent. With this intent, the buyer is looking for certain types of information. Their searches may include questions such as “how do I?” or involve factual queries, as they want more information on a subject.
• Commercial keyword intent. With this intent, the buyer wants information to help them make a purchase. In general, they know what they want but don’t know where to find it. They want to find what they’re searching for as quickly as possible. They might type in a search query such as “find new jeans” or “buy printer”.

Buyers with commercial keyword intent are more likely to purchase than buyers with informational keyword intent.

You can use several different tools to determine buyer intent, including Ubersuggest and Answer the Public. You could also use Google’s Keyword Planner tool. Be sure to factor buyer intent into the awareness content you create.

Awareness content can feature on all pages of your website, including your blog, FAQ section and About page. It can also feature in lesser detail on your Home page and Product pages.

Consideration stage

When people discover the various options open to them to resolve a need or solve problem, their next goal is to learn more about the subject to help them decide whether to make a purchase. SEO for e-commerce can speed up the sales cycle, as you can help searchers who are looking for detailed product information or product reviews to help them make their purchasing decision.

Consideration content

By anticipating the type of information customers need in order to take action and buy, we can create consideration content that streamlines the sales process and shortens the time to purchase. At this stage, customers have done their research and decided whether to purchase. They know what their problem is and are aware of the available solutions. Now they need to decide which option is best for them.

Searchers are aware that your product can solve a problem they have. They’re also aware of the benefits of your product. Consideration content should focus on why your product is superior to other options. Remember, people are trying to make up their mind and your goal is to give them all the information they need to come to a decision and guide them toward choosing your product over those of your competitors. 

Ask yourself, what does my customer need to see, read, or do to help them buy from me? Then factor this into your keyword research and content creation.

Consideration content can feature anywhere on your website, but most details can be included on your Product pages, About page, FAQ section, and blog.

Usually, we don't focus paid search (PPC) campaigns on keywords that drive awareness or consideration, as this can be costly. The longer form content you create to help consumers discover or decide to buy is better suited to SEO.

Conversion stage

Even though SEO content tends to feature more heavily in the awareness and consideration stages, it is possible to drive sales from SEO traffic by optimizing your website content, page titles, and headings. You can do this by including conversion-based keywords. These keywords include words that indicate purchase intent, such as "buy iPhone case", "book NYC hotel" or "order large pizza". These purchase-intent keywords indicate that the searcher wants to take action after they search and aims to click through to a website.

Conversion content

Conversion content tends to be short and to the point. The consumer knows what they want, so you don't need to overload them with details. The purpose of conversion content is to close the sale. At this point, searchers have discovered your offering and chosen you as their preferred solution. So, now you need to give them the information they need to complete the transaction. 

Try to identify content ideas from your keyword research that match your product’s unique selling points and brand values. This type of content works most effectively on your Product pages, Category pages, and on your Home page. It can serve as a trust signal to consumers.

To increase the likelihood of conversion, you can support your SEO for e-commerce activities with PPC keywords that contain purchase-intent phrases. As part of a wider strategy, you can use PPC and SEO side by side to give searchers as many avenues to purchase as possible when they look online. If people can click either the organic SEO listing or a PPC ad, they have two paths to purchase from the Google SERP.