A pleasant e-commerce design, fast page loading, intuitive navigation, mobile-friendliness (responsiveness), and a clear and broad product offering are the most important factors influencing the attractiveness of an online store, important from the perspective of users who have had the opportunity to explore its intricacies.
How to attract people to e-commerce who don't yet know about your business? One of the most interesting and effective solutions for quality traffic is the positioning of the online store. Additional advantages include a low entry threshold and a potentially high return on investment. Where should you begin positioning your online store?
The key to an online store's success is its online visibility, meaning its presence in the Google search engine, among other places. To rank high in search results for a wide range of keywords, it's crucial to ensure proper store optimization, which is worth planning even before the website launches, during the design phase.
Building an online store begins with choosing an engine that allows for full service tailored to your needs. But inventory control and easy payments aren't everything if you plan to run a business that's popular in search engines. When it comes to optimization options, not every platform allows for complete flexibility and the ability to freely change settings or code within the template. So what should you pay attention to?
Below are the most important guidelines that will work for online stores (typical e-commerce and service promotion websites).
Friendly URLs
Some popular online store engines still don't allow for complete freedom in choosing subpage addresses. Therefore, it's worth choosing a platform that allows you to create URLs as user-friendly as possible, e.g., nazwa-sklepu.pl/niebieski-kocyk-dzieciecy.html instead of nazwa-sklepu.pl/kategoria/podkategoria/123-niebieski_kocyk_121342thbkguad7y.html.
Possibility to modify title and meta description
Both of these elements represent the store in search engines. The ability to customize it to fit specific keywords significantly simplifies optimization and increases the online store's chances of success in search results. A carefully selected title and description let users know what to expect from a given website even when browsing the results.
H1, H2, H3, H4 headings
If you're interested in online store SEO, make headers your friend! Why? Nobody likes reading a "wall of text"—thousands of characters crammed together. Content needs to be divided into visually appealing paragraphs, and it's a good idea to separate them with headings—H1, H2, and H3. This will aid the reader's understanding, and the keywords in the headings will inform search engine crawlers what the section is about and how to interpret it in the context of adding SEO value to the page.
Keyword research for your online store
It requires researching the competition and determining what's important to your business. In your online store SEO strategy, it's crucial to determine whether you'd prefer to break through the competition by selecting popular keywords, or whether you'd go wide and try to build an empire based on selecting niche (or long-tail) keywords.
Keyword research is (nomen omen) crucial to the success of online stores. Conducting keyword analysis systematically and regularly will allow you to understand customer needs, optimize your website content, and position it more effectively in Google search results. Where to start?
- Define your target group – the group you want to reach with your advertising messages, online store offers, or services. Explore their biggest pain points, preferences, priorities, and communication style. This will give you insight into how to refine your offering to truly meet their needs.
- Create a list of the most important keywords, that align with what your potential customers are looking for and can find on your store's virtual shelves. Pay attention to keywords with high search volume but low competition, as these are the most effective for SEO.
- Include local searches in your keywords. This will help you attract the attention of customers in your region.
- Take a closer look at your competition. See what keywords you are positioning for and, based on that, create your own online store positioning strategy.
- Remember that consistency and conscientiousness pay off. Online store positioning is an ongoing process. Periodically research keywords and optimize your e-commerce for them.
Tools that can help with keyword research
There are various tools available for keyword research, such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, KWFinder, and many others. These tools allow you to understand popular searches, related phrases, competition, and query volume.
Content in an e-commerce store – the most important recommendations
Google is a text-based search engine, so substantively valuable and interesting entries on a website are worth their weight in gold. It's based on these entries that web crawlers use to assess whether a website's content matches the search query. It's worth noting that these are texts accessible to them – visible in the page's code and published on subpages included in the indexing.
Google's web crawlers prefer online store websites that:
They contain larger chunks of text – on the home page, it's worth including information of at least 1000 characters, including spaces (zzs); for most subpages, this would be 750 characters. Not every page needs this much content – it would be difficult to force it into, for example, the "contact" tab.
The text published in an online store should be unique and not appear on any other website, portal, catalog, etc. This also applies to product descriptions, which are often duplicated in online stores (e.g., they were provided by a distributor and are known to be approved by them). It's worth putting the effort into preparing original and unique product descriptions, which, in addition to their SEO benefits, can also positively capture the attention of a potential customer without a sense of déjà vu ("I've read this somewhere before / I'm..."). The language of benefits also works well.
Content published in an online store should be separated by subheadings. This is to avoid a monolithic effect. Any variations in the form of headings, bold text sections, or other forms of emphasis, including graphics, charts, links, etc., are welcomed by web crawlers. Of course, it's worth considering whether this aligns with your concept of presenting your offer; using subheadings is certainly the easiest option from a technical perspective and in terms of the visual design of a given subpage.
The text we publish in our online store should be correct in terms of language, spelling and style; it is also good to use terms that our potential customers use to search for the products we offer - after entering a query, web robots will not display a website that does not contain this query in its content.
Good to know…
Google robots can handle common spelling errors, so there is no need to include a variant of a word with incorrect spelling in the text published within an online store (which, by the way, would not make a good impression on website visitors).
Whenever possible, modify the content and constantly enrich it – adding a new tab, description, additional information, etc. causes the website to be indexed more often by Google web crawlers.
It's worth systematically introducing new content to your online store. An obvious solution is to add new products and provide unique descriptions for each. Another method is to maintain a blog or post updates on your website. Detailed instructions on how to run a blog and use it as a tool to support SEO can be found in our SEO guide for service industry companies.
Important!
Avoid duplicate content within your online store. Duplicate text offers no SEO benefits and can actually slow down the SEO process. Duplicate content is not plagiarism. It is the duplication of content elsewhere on the internet, regardless of whether it was done voluntarily or without your knowledge or consent. Using ready-made content, prepared and provided by the manufacturer or distributor, is often the most convenient solution from an organizational perspective. However, if you want effective SEO, it's worth preparing such content yourself.
Store Category Descriptions
A kind of "good morning" for new users. It allows you to guide them through your world, your online store, tell its story, and create the right atmosphere. Once you get to know each other better and build trust, it will be easier to offer solutions through your products.
An online store's category description must be interesting, valuable, and… also SEO-friendly! Since its content typically falls within 1500–2500 characters, including spaces, this provides ample scope for diversifying the text with keywords and headings.
Product descriptions in online stores
Properly prepared product descriptions in an online store bring many benefits, not only from an SEO perspective, but can also help users make purchasing decisions.
When browsing a product in a traditional store, customers rely on information found on labels and tags, often basing their shopping cart's contents on conversations with the salesperson. In the virtual world, they derive all their information from the text on the product page.
Keep this in mind when creating content for your website. Make sure it's engaging and comprehensively describes the product and its benefits. Before writing your description, you can also consider potential questions a customer might ask when entering them into a Google search box. Let them find the answers on your website!
What are the characteristics of a good text prepared with the client in mind?
- Accurately describes the appearance and functionality of the product.
- It contains answers to the most frequently asked questions and dispels the most common doubts about this product.
- It's easy to read – it includes headings, lists, and technical data presented in a table. This form of information presentation is clear and contributes to a positive reception of the text.
Considering the same points from the SEO perspective, it is easy to see that the text written for the client and for search engine robots is basically one and the same:
A detailed description provides more space for keywords and their synonyms. A larger text length also allows you to expand your SEO pool to include long-tail keywords.
Another point is also related to the "long tail." Search engine users often ask questions directly in the search box. To better tailor SERPs to their needs, Google introduced Featured Snippets, which are highlighted (above the top 10!) snippets with answers. "Catching" and placing a properly formulated question and answer on your page is a chance to stand out from the competition.
Google robots are excellent at reading HTML code and selecting the data it contains. For example, the use of keywords in h1, h2, and h3 headings indicates that these are the most important phrases on the page. In paragraphs containing the main content, it's worth emphasizing keywords using boldface (strong) . Lists and tables are other elements that enrich the description and influence its reception by search engines.
A well-crafted description requires a significant amount of work, but it's the right path to success in search results. Taking shortcuts, such as using product descriptions provided by the manufacturer, is to your own detriment. The more popular the product, the greater the likelihood that its description will be duplicated by competitors. Google doesn't look kindly on duplicate content, and there's a chance that further duplicates will be penalized by removal from the search engine's index. To avoid penalties, we encourage you to develop your own product description style and use it across all your tabs.
Benefit language and clever wordplay are also valuable. If you don't have a knack for combining letters well, you can always outsource your content optimization to experts.
Blog Content – Recommendations for Creating Blog Content
A well-run company blog is a simple (though obviously requiring a lot of effort) way to:
- content that will inform Google bots about the topic of the website or storeThey will help attract customers who are searching for information on a given topic or product in search engines. If done thoughtfully and according to plan, it will have a positive impact on E-commerce SEO.
- gaining trust and strengthening your position as an expert. A company blog with important information about the products offered in the store is a confirmation that a given e-commerce platform is trustworthy and, therefore, worth using its offer.
Both of these values intertwine and it is impossible to say whether, in the case of a skillfully run company blog, the credibility of the store increases and the improvement of SEO is a desired side effect, or vice versa - a blog on the store's website simultaneously increases the brand's reputation as an expert and improves positioning for phrases related to published entries.
Blog content suggestions for online stores:
- Comparison of leading products in the same category;
- Comparison of products from the same category in different price ranges – for example, baby strollers up to PLN 300, 500 and 1000 with a description of the functions;
- Product proposals that meet specific needs and solve specific problems – for example, computers for editing films, pressure washers, drones for filming, gloves for practicing a given martial art;
- Guide articles – how to perform a given activity using a given product/product category – for example, removing rust from jewelry, installing a monitoring system, and others using products from the range;
- Important events in the life of the company – Note – such posts should be published infrequently and contain more than just a dry chronicle. The truth is, even if a customer likes your store, they don't particularly care that you increased revenue by 21,37% last year or that your product development director has changed. It's often better to avoid this type of content than to make it stiff and bland. From an SEO perspective, such posts can potentially improve your positioning for branded searches.
When writing blog posts, remember not only to focus on engaging topics that align with your customers' expectations and interests, but also to prioritize structure and keyword usage. This will help search engines (and therefore users!) find your content. If you're creating content, do it well, for everyone's benefit!
Subdomain or subpage?
If you are wondering whether a subdomain or a subpage is a better solution, we can advise that a better solution from an SEO point of view is a blog that is part of the website, functioning as a subpage available at, for example, www.nazwa-firmy.pl/blog.
Length of texts published on the blog
The length of blog posts should be tailored to the topic, so that the text appears complete and comprehensive (while also being informative and reader-friendly). Blog posts can be of varying lengths; a working guideline is 1000-1200 characters (including spaces). The upper limit depends on the topic, its competitiveness, and the goal we want to achieve. Our blog sometimes contains texts that exceed 20 characters, including spaces!
Frequency of publishing texts
The frequency of blog posts isn't set in stone. They don't have to appear daily or at perfectly regular intervals. We suggest publishing 4-7 unique posts per month , focusing on their length rather than frequency. Longer posts—those that provide more information—may be more receptive to readers and Google.
Use of keywords in texts
When writing blog posts, it's worth using keywords specifically chosen for website positioning. Each post should contain at least 1-2 keywords selected for positioning. Avoid using a single word too often and using it in most of your content. A keyword should appear 1-3 times in the dedicated text, depending on the length of the post and its potential uses.
The keyword should be used uninflected (if possible) and uninterrupted. Keyword phrases don't have to be included in every post. Use them only when your post is truly related to the keyword you're ranking for.
It is worth using the bold option in the text for phrases containing keywords or for keywords themselves (the number of bolds – moderate, giving a natural impression).
Text division
The preferred format for blog posts is divided into paragraphs, blocks, and sections. Using a frame or information box can be a good idea. Blog text shouldn't appear monolithic. Titles and subheadings (e.g., h1, h2, or h3—depending on the length and planned division of the text) are also recommended for natural and logical division of content. It's recommended that titles and subheadings (if possible) include keywords.
Blog posts can contain links (anchored in text or graphics) that lead, for example, to specific subpages or products relevant to the post's content. If we want to use links in our posts, it's worth remembering a few things:
- the link does not have to be in every entry,
- you should enter 1-2, maximum 3 links to one entry; their number depends on the length of the text (longer texts can include more links),
- links can be added both in texts and graphics.
- If the blog has outgoing links that do not lead to our website or other websites belonging to the client (e.g. other blogs or an online store), they should be marked as "nofollow".
Adding customer reviews
Systematically adding unique content to your online store is a great idea from a SEO perspective. This can be accomplished by updating a subpage with a blog, news section, or reviews/testimonials.
Adding customer reviews to your homepage has another advantage: it leverages social proof and supports purchasing decisions. If others have used your services and were happy with them, it's worth joining the ranks of satisfied customers, right?
Why is it worth adding new content?
Publishing new content thematically related to the offer presented on the website/online store can translate into better domain indexing by Google and, as a result, higher rankings in the SERPs. A website with more content and that is frequently updated is perceived by Google as better and more valuable to its audience.
Posting positive customer reviews within your online store, in addition to the obvious image-building aspect, allows you to use keywords relevant to your industry in the content of your subpage . It also confirms the quality of your services, which can support customers in making purchasing decisions.
Obtaining positive reviews can also be easier and more convenient than, for example, running a blog or a news section . Not every type of business is a good topic for blogging, but any company can obtain reviews or testimonials.
Customer reviews can also be used to create internal linking – these are links leading, for example, to specific subpages, products or services that correspond to the content of the review.
Image optimization
One of the key elements of online store optimization, it involves adapting the images used on a domain to search engines so that they are properly displayed and processed. Optimization aims to improve the website's visibility in search results and the user experience. The latter has a significant impact on bounce rates and transaction completion.
What should you pay special attention to when optimizing images for e-commerce? These include:
- File size and format – in this case, less is more! As long as there's no loss of quality. A lighter file won't overload the page or negatively impact the time it takes to load. And that's a definite plus! Just remember to use the appropriate formats – JPEG for photos and PNG for vector graphics.
- Filenames and alt tags – the file name should describe the image content and the alt tag should contain a short description of the image.
- Description and tags – should be included in the product description and tags to make them easier to find by search engine robots.
- Kompatybilność z urządzeniami mobilnymi – Ensure your images are mobile-friendly so your website is easy to view on phones and tablets. This is an absolute must these days.
File access (FTP)
By choosing an internet platform without FTP access, we're limited to what our subscription allows and the provider's technical support. Sometimes this solution works, and for example, if a large number of address redirects are required, the collaboration is seamless. Small businesses without dedicated IT staff can certainly consider this option.
In the case of larger stores, a better solution will be an engine whose files can be accessed at any time and will not be dependent on helpdesk opening hours.
