You’ve probably already read about choosing keywords, writing creative product descriptions, and inserting alt image text. Great, keep your basics sharp! But what next? Here are a few tips to help you level up your SEO game.
Resolve duplicate content
Duplicate content refers to online text that appears on more than one address – between several different sites or within your own. The search engines have no way to figure out which version is original and the most correct, so they have no idea how to rank any of them, and that hurts your store’s reach. There are three places on e-commerce sites where duplicate content is most likely to appear.
- Store URLs
In the eyes of browser AI, the URL is the ID of the page. It’s supposed to be unique, so anything that gets in the way of that interpretation also gets in the way of your ranking. Tracking and sorting tools, like cookies, session IDs, and faceted filters, are some of the most common e-store duplication problems.
- Descriptions of third-party products
If your online store is a dropshipping business, you may be tempted to just copy-paste whatever product descriptions your suppliers have. Don’t. Chances are that most, if not all, of their distributors, are doing that, which means there’s already a ton of duplicate text floating around. Instead, include the important information, but give it some unique flair. This will make your pages stand out from the crowd, rank you better, and possibly increase your sales of those particular items.
- Descriptions of in-store products
If you make and sell your own stuff, you may have several similar products across a few categories. It’s easy to use the same basic description for all of them and just change details, but this damages the ranking of each page. Focus on highlighting their differences instead: figure out what sets each product apart from other similar items and make that the selling point of its description.
Make your URLs easy to crawl
A good URL will immediately let the site visitor know what the page is about. When you’re choosing your personal domain, aim to include an obvious hint about what you do, like your company name or specific niche.
The same goes for search engines: they need to immediately recognize what each page is about. So, you want the URL for each page to be concise and clear. Include a keyword if possible.
Use keywords strategically
Too many keywords stuffed onto one page can easily backfire, driving away both search bots and living customers. For each page, individual product, or service category, choose one or two terms to target. Data analytics tools can help you identify which keywords are the most relevant for that page. Here are a few starting steps:
- Brainstorm vocabulary related to your product or service
- Eliminate everything that doesn’t get significant numbers in analytics
- Choose a few specific phrases that are unique to your products
- Try to find popular search terms that don’t have too much competition yet
- Always think from the point of view of a browsing customer
Once you have a solid keyword selection, use some of them as anchor text for internal links in strategic places on your website. This is one of the best ways to ma
ke search engines understand how the various pages of your site relate to each other and how to rank them in your niche.
Resolve broken or missing links
You redesign your website, content gets changed or moved, links break, and you just miss it or forget about it. Fix it fast: search engines depend on your links to understand your website’s structure, which builds your e-store’s credibility.
One easy solution is to set up a 301 redirection to automatically let engine AI know that a link has been updated and which page it leads to now. Redirection pages also help to retain traffic: a user is much more likely to stay on your site if they see a “The page you’re looking for has been moved to new link” instead of the “Error 404” message.
In summary, to maximize the success of your SEO strategy, optimize for AI and living visitors alike. Avoid content duplication, be smart about utilizing your keywords, and monitor for any link issues. This will let you get the most out of your website, improve user experience, and boost your store’s rank among competitors.
