SEO optimization of online stores

Technical SEO eCommerce Guide

Digital Campaign

Do you have an online store? Do you want more visitors and to sell more?

Perfect - this is the SEO Guide for Online Stores to help you get more traffic, more customers and in the end more profit.

Here we approach aspects related to the technical optimization of an online store and the SEO optimization of the entire site especially if you target customers in Europe.

Read this SEO guide for Online Stores to understand the optimization of technical factors and on-site SEO to attract customers from Paris, Rome, London, Madrid, Berlin, The Hague, Amsterdam, Oslo and other wonderful places on the continent.

For details about on page SEO optimisation read these articles about How to optimize your website with SILO strategy and Creating and optimising the content for your target page and supporting pages.   

We think that it is obvious that there are many factors related to SEO and they influence the sales and traffic of an online store. Even so, they can be easily divided into 3 separate categories:

1. Technical aspects of your site

This part includes aspects such as how well written the code of that online store is, how fast or slow it loads, whether or not errors occur, whether Google can read the site correctly, whether it works well on any browser, phone or computer. These are some of the "technical factors".

2. SEO factors of your site optimisation

That is, things we can do on our site, such as: what we put on the first page, how we make the menu, what buttons we have in the menu, what titles we use, what product descriptions and so on. In short, on-site optimization of an online store.

3. SEO factors of external promotion for your store

Here are included things like: where we advertise, what we promote, how much traffic we attract, what kind of visitors, where they come from, and so on. In short, factors outside our site. This is the off-site SEO.

Next, we will talk about the first category: Technical factors that influence the optimization of an online store.

SEO for Online Stores - The Main Technical Factors
First of all, we want to specify an important and very useful aspect if we consider the costs of creating an online store.

Google does not give points to a website for absolutely all the technical optimizations we can bring to a site. There are hundreds of sites on the net that test different aspects of your site and that identify hundred "problems" that "must" be solved.

DON`T TRY TO GET 100% SCORES IN ALL THESE PROGRAMS

It is possible that the cost for the programmer or the developer will be very high in relation to the benefits. Just keep in mind that certain criteria are absolutely essential and for that, you need to hire a developer.

The list of criteria that Google uses to rate a site is very large. Some of those criteria do not exist in a site, certainly. The effect is so small that it is NOT worth investing in getting a “perfect score”. In reality, there is no perfect score.

Regarding the vast majority of technical settings, Google does not reward the settings but RATE THE PROBLEMS.

E.g: We know that Google is very attentive to the loading speed of a site. And it's normal to be like that. It is recommended that any page of the site load in less than 2 seconds. If the site loads over this time, there is certainly fewer points. punctuation. And it is normal to be so - the harder the store loads, the more frustrated the visitor will be.

But, let's say we have 2 online stores: one site load in 1.5 seconds, the other in 0.75 seconds. The second is 2 times faster than the first.

But does the second one deserve a double "technical" score compared to the first one? From a visitor's point of view, both load almost instantly. Do you really think you will notice a delay of 0.75 seconds?

It makes no sense for technical optimizations to generate an extra score in SEO at some point. For a user, both sites load fast enough, in which case there should be no differences in SEO between sites related to this aspect.

The only way this can happen is if Google does NOT reward high-performing sites, but penalizes poorly performing sites.

So, technically, it is good enough. There is no point in hunting for the "perfect score", which is an illusion, and it is very bad in terms of the cost of creating an online store.

List with the most important SEO factors to follow for your online store

UPLOAD SPEED

Preferably the upload speed to be on all pages of a site UNDER 2 SECONDS. Optimal if it is around 1 second. Upload speed is a factor that has always been an important parameter in determining a site's SEO score.

In general, there are 4 main aspects that slow down a site:

› Hosting. The vast majority of servers used or still use Apache server software. Although very robust, reliable and popular, Apache appeared in 1996. It was updated, but the architecture and the way of working are a bit outdated at present and in terms of speed it is quite weak.

› Programming errors, plugin errors or other errors. Simply programming errors present in the site. There is no standard here. Errors can occur from anything and there is no standard way to solve them. If there are errors, they are generally reported in the Google console of that site. After identification, you must contact a programmer or person who develops sites.

› Plugins or scripts. Do you want to have online chat conversations with visitors? Google Analytics? Facebook Pixel? Software to analyze traffic? Another software to analyze something else? Plugin to display friends on Facebook? All of this has a cost in resources - every program that does something slows down your site. Make sure everything you use is really useful. You can test your site with https://tools.pingdom.com/ and you can see what slows down your store the most.

› Very large images or movies. It's nice to have big and clear pictures. Obvious. But sometimes big, clear and beautiful pictures can take up a lot of space. If you have a category with dozens of products, and each one displays a picture of 1 mega, then your page can reach a size of tens of mega. On a connection that is not very fast (mobile, 3g) the page loading will take a lot, even if it is perfectly made technically and has a good server.

BROWSING THE SITE

Can Google browse the site without issues that actually prevent it from "seeing" the content?

There is no bonus or prize here. There are only two situations: Google CAN scan the site or Google CAN NOT scan the site. In case 2, you will not really exist on Google, because your site cannot be read by search engines.

Such errors appear in Google Search Console or if we try to access the cache of a page (write cache: before the URL of the page)

HTTPS - SECURE CONNECTION

In the case of online stores, the secure connection is a plus on SEO. Think about it: If you want to buy something, you send personal data on the net, possibly even credit/debit card data.

These transfers need to be as secure as possible - so HTTPS is important for online stores.

ASYNCHRONOUS LOADING (Async Loading)

This setting is related to the speed of the site. Asynchronous loading causes all the elements present in the site to load in parallel, which makes the site load faster.

In general, these are the main technical factors that influence a store.

We are not saying they're all, but the MAIN factors. What is important to remember is that purely technical factors provide an insignificant plus score, except for the loading speed. These factors penalize you if they are not ok, but they do NOT reward you if they are ok.

SEO for Online Stores - The Main On-Site Aspects

There are two types of SEO factors at the site level: factors related to the entire site and factors related to the optimization of a page.

In the first part of this guide, we will deal only with the factors related to the optimization of the entire site. Let's say the general SEO criteria for the entire online store.

Since 2016, Google has started to focus more and more on factors related to the user experience: how easily he moves through the site, he found or not what he is looking for, how much time he spends on the site to actually read what is written there, what is the percentage of visitors who actually buy and so on.

In the past, these factors were more in the area of ​​conversion optimization - a separate division of online marketing. Now this area is migrating and will be integrated into SEO because the user experience is an increasingly important factor in SEO - a factor that influences the position on Google.

ON-SITE SEO Factors for Online Stores

SITE STRUCTURE AND MENU
The menu and the way the site is structured is the most important SEO factor for online stores.

Why? For the majority of online stores, the life of any product is limited. Put the product in stock (or in the supplier's stock) - it remains available for a period of time - generally not more than 1-3 years - after which it disappears from the final stock.

However, the CATEGORY of which that product belongs remains permanent.

One more thing: an average store has tens or hundreds of thousands of products in stock. Every month there are hundreds of new products coming into that stock and hundreds of products coming out. The work to make for each product a dedicated page, with a lot of text, description, is huge. No one has such resources.

But you can make text dedicated and real content to the CATEGORY of which those products are part.

SO: ONLINE STORES ARE NOT OPTIMIZED FROM THE SEO POINT OF VIEW AT THE PRODUCT LEVEL - ONLY AT THE CATEGORY LEVEL.

There is only one exception: you have very few products and they have a long life. You can optimize at the product level if 50-100 products that will be valid for years.

The way the site is divided is the most important SEO optimization factor at the site level of a store.

The more detailed the category structure, the higher the traffic - because you have very specific pages that can target very specific user searches.

E.g:
›Case A - WEAK SEO optimization (not recommended): www.exemple-store-online.com/skirts/…… products ………
›Case B - GOOD SEO optimization: www.exemple-store-online.com/skirts/short_skirts/short_skirts_jeans/…… products ………

If someone searches Google for "denim skirts" - which of the two destinations is more specific? Which is more relevant to the user's search?

IMPORTANT: all sub-categories INCLUDE the main keyword - skirts - and secondary keywords - short skirts. It is very important that the whole structure is built keeping in mind the keywords pursued and the way in which their hierarchy is organized.

The more detailed the structure of a site and the better correlated with the main Google searches of the target audience, the higher the store traffic will be.

Now, OBVIOUSLY, you don't make the categories to keep them secret. The most normal and obvious place to put all these categories is in the SITE MENU.

The site menu is one of the most viewed elements of a site. The clearer, easier to use and more specific the menu, the better the user experience will be - and at the same time, your SEO score will be higher.

Think about where you are looking for something easier: in a book in which the content does not exist - or in a book in which the content is very well defined.

ELEMENTS OF THE FIRST SCREEN - and more importantly on the mobile
We are talking about the elements of SEO optimization at the level of the ENTIRE online store - the common elements on the entire site - not elements that appear only on certain pages.

What is the first thing any visitor sees on your site? Whatever that is, IT'S ON THE FIRST SCREEN. So you have to be very careful about what appears on the first screen.

Recommendations for the first screen:

› Make a small sentence (you don't have room for more on your mobile) that describes very clearly and succinctly what your store is about. Preferably that description should contain the most important 1-2 keywords you are looking for. The description must NOT be large, maximum 2 rows on the mobile.

› Enter some useful info - the most frequently asked questions/requests from customers. For example free shipping orders over 200 euro / Parcel Check / Free Return / 3-year warranty / 2nd-day delivery / and other things that are a plus for you as an online store and that are very important for your clients.

DO NOT put on the first screen things that have NOT what to look there. Especially on mobile, it is preferable for the first screen to be as clean as possible.

SITE SEARCH - well defined, preferably with an associated text
That is a button, generally with a magnifying glass icon that also has the text: search the site

It is very important that once the user arrives on your site to facilitate as much as you can the road to the desired product. The elements that manage the product path MUST appear on the first screen.

MENU OPEN BUTTON
This is the case for mobile. On a desktop, the menu is generally active from the first. That is a button to press to open the menu. It is preferable to have a text next to the icon that opens the menu (type: Open Menu).

› It is very, very important to help the visitors to find what they are looking for. Besides the search box on the site, the menu is another element very often used for navigation.

For sure, not 100% of all products/product-categories are the most important for you and your visitors. The vertical order in which the categories appear in the menu is good to be as correlated as possible with the number of searches. The more popular a product is, the higher it should be on the menu.

PRODUCT FILTER
Whether you are on the desktop or on the mobile, the product filter button must be very visible.

› Most visitors will end up on category pages, not product pages. If you are in the category, you WANT to be able to filter easily and quickly that category. This means that the filter button MUST be in the first screen, preferably to have an associated text.

DISPLAY SETTING
If you have a category in which there are many products, you can see that category in two ways: a list as compact as possible, a list as detailed as possible. In general, it is good to have a button that switches between the two modes.

SHOPPING CART
Many potential buyers often add and/or check the product cart. It is very important that the "Product Cart" button is easily accessible on the first screen.

BUTTON ABOUT US - important for expensive products
If you sell expensive or complex products/services, trust in the store can be an important factor. If you want to buy something for 2000 euros, you will most likely check that company - is it older? Does it have a headquarters? Is it trustworthy? After all, who do you give 2000 euros to? All this information must be put in the ABOUT US and about us must be easily accessible.

ELEMENTS OF POPULARITY - SOCIAL PROOF - like likes on Facebook
Popularity on social networks - social proof - is an important element that generates trust in your online store. However, I do not know if it is so important, mandatory on the first screen.

Social proof can also be done at the category or product level. However, it is very unlikely that all your products/categories will have many likes. So it's good to have a global element for that.

These are the MAIN elements of SEO related to the optimization of an online store.

Not all of them are related to on-page optimization, but they are related to SEO and are important. From the list above, by far the most important factor is the structure of categories + menu - which are essentially two aspects of the same element - the structure of the site. If you can, and if there are, find some very relevant words for your field of activity. Use those words in a way that doesn't bother the above elements. Remember that those elements are general throughout your site. For example: if you are a printer store - at the search button on the site - you can use a generic text like" search the site "or you can use a custom text like:" search the printer store ". In case 2 you get a focus on the words "store" and "printer" which - obviously it's ok for you.