E-commerce SEO: How to boost your organic ranking

For example, the above reviews for Allbirds’ Tree Lounger shoes all include the word “comfortable”, which the brand can use to describe its product and attract people who are searching for “comfortable shoes”.

b) Understand your customers’ search intent 

Search intent is the reason consumers are running a search. There’s a big difference between someone who’s searching “how to get a good night’s sleep” and someone who’s searching for a “memory foam mattress”. But, if you sell mattresses, both searchers could be potential customers. 

Search intent often falls into four different categories: 

Informational: searchers looking for an answer to a specific question or general information (e.g. “how to get a good night’s sleep”) 

Navigational: searchers intending to find a specific site or page (e.g. “Dream’s opening times”)

Commercial: searchers looking to investigate brands or services (e.g. “Dream’s website”)

Transactional: searchers intending to complete an action or purchase (e.g. “Dream’s kingsize mattress price”) 

c) Research the right keywords 

Using the information from your buyer personas and search intent research, you can start to narrow down and list out relevant keywords. 

For example, if you sell bamboo water bottles and want to capture shoppers with a variety of search intent, you might list out keywords that cover those actions, including: 

• How to stay hydrated 
• Bamboo water bottle vs plastic water bottle
• Best bamboo water bottles
• Bamboo water bottle prices

These keywords will help you map out what pages you need to create on your site or what keywords you need to add to existing, relevant pages. Use a keyword research tool to expand your list of keywords – simply type in one keyword and it will provide several similar options that you can also use. 

d) Target the right keywords

There are millions of keyword combinations you can use to define your products and services, but successful SEO means choosing the right keywords. To do this, take into account the following: 

• Keyword search volume: Keywords with low search volumes may not be relevant for now
• Keyword ranking difficulty: You’ll find it difficult to rank for competitive keywords, especially if you’re a newer brand 
• Keyword search intent: This is based on the intent you’re targeting from the four categories listed above 

e) How to pick the right keywords

At this point, you’ll have a fairly sizable list of potential keywords. Now it’s time to choose the right ones. Here are some ways you can make sure you’re selecting the best-fit keywords for your target market: 

Google Trends: Find out the search interest for particular keywords based on Geography, the time of year, and “related keywords”

• Competitor research: Uncover what words and phrases your competitors are using by running their sites through a keyword tool or checking their bids on paid search

3. Fixing SEO gaps

Search engines regularly tweak their algorithms (the latest was a product reviews update in May 2022). It’s crucial to stay on top of these changes and practice frequent audits if you want to stay ahead of the game. 

Identifying problem pages or pages that could be improved with a few well-placed keywords will bolster the rest of your site, increasing your rankings across the board. 

Once you’ve identified the problem pages on your site, you can start to fill in the gaps. For example, you can identify the low-performing pages and check that: 

• The URL includes the primary keywords
• The keyword is included in the title, meta title, and meta description 
• The keyword density (avoid keyword stuffing)
• The page hierarchy, including H1 and H2 tags
• Alt-text tags for images

Simply refreshing these elements and ensuring the keyword is present in all the major hotspots can instantly boost the performance of a page. This is known as “on-page SEO” and makes up just half of Google’s ranking factors. 

As well as polishing up your own pages, it’s important to focus some energy on what’s known as “off-page SEO” too.

a) How to improve on-page SEO

• Strategic keyword placement: Ensure your primary keywords and relevant phrases are included in the meta information and throughout the page

• Blogging: Your store isn’t just about products and categories – blog posts can target educational keywords and attract top-of-the-funnel buyers with ‘how-to’ articles. Write content that will interest your audience, like the hottest products, current trends, or product guides

• Add visuals: Include images, videos, and infographics to reduce bounce rate and increase page engagement levels

• Write for humans: While keywords are important, your content should enrich the reader’s understanding. Blog posts and product pages should be well-researched and linked to credible sources

• Have an FAQ section: This serves two purposes. It answers all your customers' common queries, and gives SEO a boost with the variety of topics covered. It's also easy to put together 

b) How to improve off-page SEO

Off-page SEO involves optimizing your site through external sources. While on-page SEO is all about adding keywords and meta descriptions to your store pages, off-page SEO involves getting links to your site to position it as an authority in the search results. 

Here are some ways you can improve your off-page SEO: 

• Generate backlinks: Backlinks are links that point to your site from external web pages and they are a major factor in Google’s ranking algorithm. The more backlinks you have coming from high-authority sites to your product pages, the higher you will be placed in the SERPs. Building the right backlinks to your store can help you outrank the competition (even Amazon and eBay in some case) and reduces the amount you need to spend on PPC and advertising campaigns 
• Partner with influencers: Team up with relevant bloggers and influencers who can review your products and provide a high-quality backlink to your site
• Back-up claims: Pages that include stats and numbers are often referenced and linked to from other sites. Include stats in your content to increase your chances of a mention

4. Updating product pages

Product pages are the lifeblood of e-commerce sites. They mark the decisive moment when a customer will choose whether to buy your product or not. But they also serve another important function: they’re assets that help you rank on search engines. 

Using the right keywords, including the right information, and providing enough relevant visual content is crucial if you want the SERPs to show your products and want customers to convert on the product page. If there’s one thing you do in your quest for higher rankings, make sure it’s tightening up your product pages.

There are three essential elements every product page should have: 

a) Product description

Share what your product is and does, and highlight any benefits customers will get if they purchase. Ensure your product descriptions contain the right keywords and answer any questions a buyer might have about the product. For example, ‘can these cushions be machine washed?’ 

Dig into reviews, listen to customer support, and use Google’s handy ‘People Also Asked’ feature to find out what pressing questions shoppers might have about your products. 

Most importantly, focus on the benefits of your product, not just the material and size. Tell shoppers how your product will improve their lives and what problems it will help solve.

Product: Go-To Skincare’s Very Lightweight Moisturizer 
What: Video showing shoppers how to use the product
Why: The video includes educational intent keywords that target people searching for “how-to” blogs and videos

b) Images and Videos

Show what your product looks like in action. This is particularly important since shoppers can’t see or touch your product before they buy. Here are some visuals you can use to show off your product: 

• Product photos: Static shots of items
• Videos: Moving visuals that show your product in action
• 360-degree photos: Show your products from all available angles
• User-generated content: Pictures and videos sent in by previous shoppers 

Product: Warby Parker’s Kian glasses

What: 360-degree images and videos 

Why: The brand shows its glasses from every angle, which is important for shoppers who can’t see or touch a product before they buy 

c) Product Reviews

Highlight what previous customers think about your product to add social proof and provide reassurance to future shoppers.

Reviews also help you rank since they include the specific keywords your audience use which will help your products show up in search results when shoppers use the same phrases in the future.

Products: Bag, suitcase
What: Customer reviews
Why: AWAY populates its product pages with positive customer reviews to ramp up the number of keywords used

5. Image SEO

One of the essential elements of e-commerce SEO is optimizing your images. Many shoppers who search for the term “swimming trunks” might head straight to the image results section so it’s crucial that you follow these best practices for images:

• Name your image files: Ensure that your photos don’t have file names like DSC001.jpg. Give each product a descriptive file name
• Give descriptive alt-text: Alt tags or alt descriptions help search engine crawlers effectively index your website which has a positive effect on search results
• Make sure your images are responsive: Ensure that your images are optimized for all devices, be it mobile, tablet or desktop. 
• Compress images to ensure faster load times: A picture shouldn’t be more than a few hundred kilobytes to ensure the page loads fast and your buyers don’t get bored and leave
• Avoid stock photos: When you’re describing your product – say, a pair of shoes – don’t use stock photos of people wearing shoes. Instead, use visuals of your actual product 

Google is now showing several images alongside its top search results. Lots of DTC shoppers are using Instagram to find products, so adding images to your product pages is important for showing up on Meta sites as well. Below, mattress brand Casper shows up top for the search term “types of bed frame” accompanied by four eye-catching images.

Choosing the right images is only part of the equation – you should also make sure you’re optimizing them with keywords, alt tags, and descriptive file names so that they also show up in search results when shoppers use the right phrases.

The Do’s and Dont’s of e-commerce SEO

Examples of SEO brands doing it right

Filter King: Generating half a million dollars in two months 

The results of SEO for e-commerce speak for themselves. One brand that sells air filters – not a particularly glamorous product – was able to boost organic traffic from $0 to $460k in a matter of months by using these key SEO tactics: 

• Keyword research and research mapping 
• Strong internal linking
• External link building 

Casper: From unknown to top mattress brand in four years

Casper is one of the world’s best-known mattress companies. It originally started out selling just one type of mattress. Even though it’s added more products to its inventory there are still not a ton of products to choose from. Despite this, the brand managed to skyrocket from complete anonymity to a $750 million dollar business in four years using SEO tactics like: 

• Creating content for shoppers at every stage of the funnel
• A backlink strategy that included incredibly high-authority sites
• Referrals and reviews
• Answering their target market’s questions
• Creating comparison resources that pitted them against their competitors