Monday, July 15, 2013

E-Commerce Site Optimization and Best SEO Practices

An E-Commerce website is very different to optimize compared with regular websites, which is why many internet marketers find the task quite taxing. Optimizing simple and static websites is relatively easy because they contain less pages that need optimization.

E-Commerce websites face a major challenge because of some underlying qualities that cannot be ignored, such as huge product catalogs, dynamic URLs leading to duplicate content and duplicate meta-tags. These factors make it harder to rank high on Google, making E-Commerce optimization no small task. Here are some expert tips that can help you out:

Perform Thorough Keyword Research

It is not enough to simply use high-traffic keywords. Keyword analysis is more about searching for super-relevant keywords. This is what will be responsible for increasing your revenue and return on investment. It is recommended to include product names, categories, model numbers and brand names in the keywords, since many users search this way. It is also useful to include long-tail keywords in this strategy.

Deal With Duplicate Content

The major problem with E-commerce websites is the fact that they contain hundreds of product pages with product descriptions and specifications copied from the manufacturer’s websites. Having page after page of duplicate content is a red flag to Google’s “Panda” update, and can lead to a significant drop in sales of the website. Dynamic URLs only make it worse by adding auto-generated pages. The best way to deal with this is to make sure that all these pages are tagged “noindex” and “nofollow.”

Keep in mind that any duplicate content on your website can harm even the unique and original content on it. Another tip is to reduce duplicate content by simply reducing the number of product pages. Instead of having a different product description page for every product that is only a small variation of another, simply have a common product description page for such products and provide drop-down menus for the variations. This can help you build unique descriptions on every page.

Optimize the Landing Page

Keep in mind that it is not enough to have traffic directed to your landing page. What matters most is conversion, which requires you to continuously work on improving and optimizing your landing page. Doing it just once is not enough, as you will be introducing new offers and products and because your competition will keep changing.

Some strategies to improve conversion would include simple and clean product descriptions with the price details and an easy-to-navigate feature for a call-to-action. It is also a good idea to include videos showing and explaining demos and how-to’s for the product.

Use Social Media

Social media is more than simply building Twitter followers and Facebook likes. “Post Purchase Share” and “Social Login” are media features that can help you increase user engagement, conversion rate, brand popularity, customer loyalty and other such social metrics which will in turn help you significantly optimize your website.

While it can be a difficult task to optimize your E-Commerce website, a few key practices can make a remarkable change in how well your website ranks on Google and brings you the sales you always wanted. So its best to take help from expert such as Click Optimize. Image Source: marciookabe