Most online merchants focus on listing as many products on their website rather than focusing on their website’s ranking on search engines. This is the prime mistake merchants make and it ends up costing more than using traditional methods. If you are contemplating on using an ecommerce website to market your products and services, there are a few SEO mistakes you should avoid.
Lack of Product Descriptions
No matter what you wish to offer on your website, content is always king. It is what contains the relevant keywords that search engine crawlers look for when ranking a website. The complete lack of a description virtually keeps your web page from getting in the top queries of search engines. In addition to that, the graphical representation of your products can only do so much in winning the hearts of prospective clients.
No ad to show here.
Failure to add product descriptions is a common mistake made by online gift shops and clothing shops. One thing you must always remember is that before purchasing a product, shoppers want to read the details about that particular product. Does it have the features they are looking for?
The more unique content you write the more effective your ecommerce website will be. The content you write should:
- Contain quality product descriptions that are helpful to the customers and influence their decision.
- Original; not copied from any other website. Copying exact content from other websites may cause your site to be penalized by search engines.
Using Manufacturer’s Product Descriptions
Using product descriptions from the manufacturer is no different from copying content from other sites. By doing this, you can be guaranteed that your website will be banned from search engines. You should only use manufacturer’s product descriptions as references and not as content for your ecommerce website.
One fact you should understand is that manufacturer’s product descriptions are often distributed to dozens of online stores. Most of the online stores leave the text unchanged hence the increase of websites with non-unique content. What is even worse is that the manufacturer’s descriptions are written simply to give facts and not in a manner that increases sales.
Creating unique content for dozens of products can be hard but it is the only way to go if you wish to achieve a great ranking on search engines. The best thing is that there are many affordable freelance writers you can hire to create original content for your website. Don’t risk your SEO standing by positing plagiarized content.
Lack of Product Reviews
The decision of shoppers is often influenced by the recommendations of other people; not necessarily their friends. This is why more than 70% of shoppers spend some time on online forums researching a specific product and supplier before making a purchase. Don’t make it hard for your customers to make speedy decisions. The best thing you can do is ensure there are numerous product reviews alongside your products.
Amazon is one of the leading ecommerce websites in the world and you can learn a lot from it. This site allows users to not only purchase products but also to leave product reviews on virtually anything they purchase. This helps create a community of shoppers who share their experiences with various products.
The best thing about using product reviews is that they help you create unique content for your store and you get all this for free. Customer reviews will also keep your page alive with fresh content that is relevant to your products. Simply put, customer reviews will subsequently supplement your SEO efforts.
Lack of Unique Titles
Not having unique titles leads to duplicate title tags. Title tags are used in determining the value of a website by the search engines. If all the title tags look the same, search engines will conclude that yours is a spam site.
Creating unique title tags is not easy especially when considering you will have to repeat similar keywords in different titles. The important thing is to use unique key phrases. Refrain from using a single keyword but focus more on the long-tail keywords.
An important tip for finding the right keywords is to know what your customers are using to search for products or services. There are several keyword research tools you can use. Know which keywords have the most hits.
No Speaking URLs
The links on your website play a very important role in determining your ranking. For example, the more inbound links your website has, the more valuable it is considered to be and this will consequently lead to a high ranking. However, when creating links, you should make sure you use understandable links.
Speaking URLs are keyword friendly and they fair better in search engine optimization. The speaking URLs will benefit you in three ways:
- Make it easy for the customers to know what to expect once they click on the link
- Google is putting less emphasis on links that lack relevant keywords
- Speaking URLs will bring more traffic when another website reposts them on their site
Loads of Duplicate Content
There is nothing more harmful to your search engine optimization techniques than the use of duplicate content. This is not only boring to your visitors but will also cause search engines to flag your website as spam. This is a point worth repeating over and over again until you understand it. Don’t use copied content for your website or even for simple product descriptions.
Not Usable
Away from content, the usability of your website plays a critical role in influencing the success of your ecommerce website. Most of your visitors only have a basic understanding of computers. You should therefore make it easy for them to find their way around your site else they will click away. A good website should ‘call-to-action’ and should make it easy for customers to find the ‘checkout’ features.
There is a lot more that can be done to increase the conversion of your ecommerce website. However, steering clear of the aforementioned mistakes is the first step and will get you started on the right foot. If you must, work with a professional.
