Tech and Trends:- It is important not to ignore SEO when setting up your ecommerce site. In order for customers to purchase from you they need to be able to find you. In order to find you, it is vital that your position in search engine results is good. It doesn’t have to be difficult to get a good ranking if you follow some basic procedures.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and is the practice of using techniques to improve your rankings in search engine results. One of the main methods of achieving this is via the use of keywords. Keywords are commonly used words or phrases that potential visitors to your site will type into a search engine for when looking for sites.
Before you start any optimisation it is vital that you have your keywords straight. There are a number of tools out there to help you do this. Some of these are free to use and others require payment. Use these tools to determine the most effective keywords for your product niche or area. It is important not to simply opt for the most popular search terms however, try to strike a balance between what is popular and what is directly related to your product or service. By focussing your efforts on the most popular keywords you could become drowned out by the competition who has decided to do the same thing.
Once you have these in place they need to be utilised effectively throughout your site.
- Rather than using the product description that is provided by a manufacturer make sure that your product listings are keyword optimised and unique. In addition make sure that your keywords are included in your product database. As you add new products to your range make sure you add the associated keywords to your product database.
- Social media has created a culture where customers may want to tag your products. Allow them to do this as it can be a useful way of obtaining information about localised or slang keywords that otherwise you wouldn’t have been aware of.
- Try to incorporate keywords on product page URLs. In addition try to ensure that all products are no more than two or three clicks away from your homepage. Ensure that each product page has a unique Meta tag that contains all of the keywords relevant to that product.
- It is worth taking the time to create an RSS feed for your new products. These feeds can be a useful way of generating backlinks to your products. This can have a dramatic increase on traffic to your site and once the initial set up is complete the process is largely automatic, generating you visitors on an on-going basis with little or no additional effort required.
- Make sure that your product images are all optimised using your keywords. Simply ensure that the alt text for every image you add to your site contains your keywords. This will also gain you traffic via Google image search results which is a growing area of site referrals.
