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by Chris Peer on Thu, May 01, 2014 @ 01:48
5 Smart SEO Strategies for eCommerce
eCommerce poses an especially difficult challenge when it comes to SEO. With products constantly changing and the potential for duplicate content, an eCommerce website requires constant vigilance to keep the search engines coming back to index the site. Here are five smart eCommerce SEO strategies to keep your website fresh and attractive to both consumers and search engine bots.
Handle Expired Products Promptly
Products go out of production. You may choose not to carry a slow selling product once inventory is gone. When you have an expired product, there are a few ways to handle it. You should use a 301 redirect to a similar product or a newer model of the expired product. If there is no similar product in your inventory, or for generic items, try to redirect it to a category page.
Create an Internal Link Structure That Optimizes Search Engine Indexing
You want to ensure that Google and other search engines find new products fast. You need to optimize your website theme so that new products are featured on the front page. Use breadcrumb navigation to make it easy for the bots to crawl the website. The most effective organization structure for products seems to be organizing by categories first and placing products underneath.
Avoid Duplicate Content When Possible
It is very easy to take the product descriptions used by manufacturers and duplicate it on your website. Unfortunately, duplicate content is usually downgraded by Google and other search engines. If the volume of products is too high to ensure all product descriptions are unique, focus on your best-selling products first. Optimize those pages with unique content. Make sure category pages are unique. Make use of Copyscape, or a similar website, to make sure your content is truly unique. This is one of the most important eCommerce SEO strategies.
Utilize User-Generated Content on Product Pages
Reviews and ratings are considered to be fresh content by Google. Fresh content counts when it comes to the Google algorithm for search engine rankings. It helps to dilute any duplicate content you might have in the product description piece.
Make Use of Video
Consumers love to see video in eCommerce. It offers a way to answer questions that the audience might have about the product. "How to..." is one of the number one searched phrases on the internet. What are some "How to" questions that you could answer about your products? A great example of an eCommerce company that maximizes opportunities with video on Youtube is Bulk Reef Supply. Through relevant topics, engaging videos and consistent posting, they have grown to over 30K subscribers! At the end of the day, the best thing about using video to promote your products is that it leads to customer engagement and brand awareness, which are both invaluable KPI's.
These eCommerce SEO strategies will help keep your products and website fresh on the search engine rankings and will generate higher traffic volume and higher sales.
If you want to get more information on how to optimize your eCommerce site, contact us here at SyncShow. We are here to help.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles via FreeDigitalPhotos.net