Top 12 SEO Practices To Boost Your E-Commerce Sales

Published On - April 9, 2019

Junaid Ali Qureshi

SEO Practices

Are you looking for ways to increase traffic to your website that could ultimately help your e-commerce sales to flourish? You have come to the right place.

This article will help you to comprehend the top 12 SEO practices in the easiest and actionable ways that will definitely give rise to your e-commerce sales. So buckle your seat belts, and let’s learn how to use SEO practices and implement them.

PRACTICE # 1 UNIQUE TITLE TAGS – Increase Organic Traffic Many Folds:

Blue text that you see in Google when you search for something is the title tag. So, be exclusive, when it comes to choosing title tags for product pages

Want to increase search traffic? All you need to do is to create unique title tags as it attracts search engine users and are a core for better ranking and will increase organic traffic.

1.1 Advantages Of Using Unique Title Tags:

  1. Great title tags, increase conversion rate.
  2. Keep you rank higher on the search results of the search engine.
  3. Will increase search traffic i.e will attract more clickers to view the content.

1.2 Characteristics Of Unique Title Tag:

Your web page title tag must be:

  1. Accurate– it should be realistic and provide exact and relevant information.
  2. Appealing– Interesting enough to influence and attract visitors to click once.  
  3. Concise– Brief but comprehensively interpreting your web page content.
  4. Adequately lengthened – It should be of appropriate length, can be of 50-60 characters and 600 Pixels.

1.3 Successful Steps To Create Exclusive Title Tags:   

It is complicated to pick peculiar title tags especially from the same manufacturer for product pages. If you don’t want to fail to create great titles for a web page, follow these few steps:

Step# 1:
Begin With Search Query Analysis:

Before you start writing, you need to begin with search query analysis, as it helps you to focus on what you write and who your competitors are.

Why use search query analysis?

  1. Helps to filter out the particular keywords.
  2. Determine query data for specific pages.
  3. Helps in improving SEO and CTR

 Step# 2:
 Set Goal To Increase Google Ranking:

Your ultimate goal should be that your website solves searcher problems better than any other website.  

Step# 3:
Find Quick Responded Keyword:
 Use keywords that you think will answer most of the people’s queries.

Step# 4
Write Compelling Tile Tags:
 Interesting title tags often drive people to click on a certain page.  

PRACTICE # 2 SEO ANALYSIS – To Fix Errors and To Boost E-commerce sales:

Do you really want to experience the magical increase in your e-commerce sales using SEO techniques?  Follow the below-mentioned actions, keeping the benefits in view:

2.1. Benefits Of Using SEO Analysis:

  1. E-commerce sales shoot up.
  2. Help identify and fix errors.
  3. Helps in achieving a higher ranking.

2.2. Actions To Boost Ecommerce Sales:

Action# 1
Check Synchronization:

You need to keep a strong check that everything is aligned with your economic and strategic goals.

Action# 2

Analyzing SEO Basics:

Frequently, analyzing your business strategic SEO in order to increase search traffic, will also help to point out SEO errors, you need to fix and watch how it will upgrade your ranking and will double your e-commerce sales.

Key questions to answer to drive e-commerce sales:

Use information extract from SEO basic analysis to answer the following questions:

  1. Is your website giving enough information to the visitors?
  2. Is it generating targeted revenue?
  3. What programming language you must embrace?
  4. What will encourage audience interaction?

Action# 3:
 Find Out And Fix The Errors:

Try to identify website errors as it will impact negatively on search engine ranking. So fix them as soon as possible. Any powerful SEO tool to identify errors is recommended.

Following are the common basic errors found on a website:

  1. Content duplication
  2. Redirect error
  3. Unknown Broken links
  4. Image optimization issues

PRACTICE # 3  Mobile Friendly Website – To Be at Top Search Result:

If your website is not mobile friendly then getting high e-commerce sales will remain your unfulfilled dream. So, go and check it now if it really is mobile-friendly?

If you want to have a rapid increase in your e-commerce sales, as discussed above, your website needs to be mobile-friendly. If you take the above steps for granted, it is most likely that your viewers get irritated and are not fully entertained. They’ll eventually switch to your competitor’s mobile-friendly website.

According to Google search result, in 2018, about 64 percent of paid Google search clicks originated from mobile, with mobile phones accounting for nearly 56 percent of total clicks.

3.1 Steps To Follow For Mobile Friendly Website:

No need to create panic, just follow the following steps and optimize your website for mobile devices!

Step#1: Understand Latest Mobile Trends:

This is how people use mobile devices: (according to Google full report on mobile device usage)
Smartphone users:        80%
Own multiple devices:   57%
Own only one device:    27%
Only use a computer:       14%
 From this Google statistical report, you can comprehend how much it is essential for your website to be mobile friendly. Use this information and transform your e-commerce website for more enthralling UX.

Step#2: Check if your website is already mobile-friendly

You may use tools like Google’s mobile test tool in order to check whether your website is already mobile friendly or not. If it’s already mobile friendly, then you need not to do anything. However, if it’s not mobile friendly, then you must make your website mobile friendly.

Step#3 How to make your website mobile friendly? 

There are several tools that you can use to make your website mobile friendly.

Step#4 Ensure Google has recognized your website as mobile-friendly:

In order to ensure, your website should be restructured on the following features:

  1. Avoid using software not commonly used on mobile like flash.
  2. The content of your website must adjust to the mobile screen size.
  3. The text used on your website must be readable so that the reader does not have to zoom in.

 

PRACTICE# 4  RICH SNIPPETS – Boost Your E-commerce Sales:

Using rich snippets help your searchers by providing extra detail about your product, which elucidates the given information.


It is the best and easiest way to boost your revenue and to add more, it also helps in improving CTR as it increases the overall visibility of the product.

4.1 Benefits Of Implementing Rich Snippets:

  1. Rich in information: Rich snippets enable you to present your product in a more informative form to your customers and translate your website’s information for search engines.
  2. E-commerce website optimization: It helps in optimizing your e-commerce website, that will result in a more organic search, which simply means an increase in traffic, which will generate more sales.
  3. Visual aids: Images, visuals, and videos supporting your product will stand out in the search result and will be effective in catching potential customers interest.

Are you ready for implementing rich snippets? Here are the topmost e-commerce rich snippets:

4.2 THE TOPMOST E-COMMERCE RICH SNIPPETS:

RICH SNIPPET#1: Product Visibility:

As the name indicates, the purpose of this rich snippet is to make your product more comprehensible to searchers by providing the clarified and additional information about the product.


Following the given steps will help you to implement product visibility rich snippet:

Additional Information:

Step#1

By adding the following information, searchers will find the article captivating:

  1. Name
  2. Image
  3. Description
  4. Brand
  5. Review and Rating
  6. URL
  7. Price
  8. Date
  9. Item
  10. Currency

Step#2
Visibility: 

The term “visibility” here means, your product description should be informative, useful and engaging that helps your customers to make well-informed decisions.

RICH SNIPPET#2: Price Rich Snippet:

What is the first thing that makes you conscious while shopping? Price! yes, the biggest factor in purchasing decision. People want to know the product price especially when the product has multiple competitors.

So, you need to be smart while showcasing the price.

Possible Outcome Of Showcasing Price:

  1. Competitive edge: If you are offering the price less than your competitors, it is obvious, you will attract more customers.
  2. Use special tags to entice customers: If you consider using tags like discount and sale, smart spenders will rush towards your product.
  3. Veil price trick to induce traffic: This could also be a possible scenario to encourage traffic to your website, if you only mention tags like discount and sale and don’t mention price, it may lure smart spenders to visit the website.

RICH SNIPPET# 3: Availability Rich Snippet:

Just imagine, you considered a product and made a purchasing decision. With all concentration, you completed the whole process and right at the last option your screen popped up with “out of stock”.

How does it feel? Agitated, frustrated. So, your utmost goal should be to save your customers from the same tiring experience by alerting them to the status of your product i.e it is “available” or “out of stock”.

Possible Result Of Availability Rich Snippet:

  1. Stock availability option: Mentioning the stock availability will encourage your potential customers to purchase a product.
  2. Customer service: Will not let left your customers disappointed.
  3. Increase product demand: If it is showcased as “limited stock available”, it will increase the product demand, consequently driving into more traffic.

RICH SNIPPET#4: Pictures And Videos Rich Snippet:

Where you can’t explain things into words, pictures and videos are the best aids to use. The usage of images and videos help to stand out on the SERP page and it always fascinates searchers. It really does!

Possible OutComes:

  1. Character visibility: Any unique characteristics not easily comprehensible, through pictures will be more visible.
  2. Attention getter: It captures searchers’ attraction and their interest.
  3. Videos support:  By incorporating videos, you can help your customers to learn, how to use a certain product.  

RICH SNIPPET#5: Rating And Reviews Rich Snippet:

The last rich snippet hold significant importance. Reviews and Rating from the actual customer impact strongly on the searchers.
The positive reviews and five-star rating increases customer confidence and ultimately boost the traffic, that increases sales.   

Possible Outcomes:

  1. Positive reviews and high ratings, increase sales from 60 to 80%.
  2. Positive reviews and high ratings, increase customer trust and build confidence.   
  3. It develops a sense of credibility in your business.
  4. Negative reviews act as an opportunity for the business to reconsider the options and fix the customers complaints.

PRACTICE#5 SIMPLE WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE – Easy To Read and Build Visitors Trust:

Complex structured website always result in slow down visitors growth, thus preventing future evolution and ward you off to serve your customers in best possible ways.

5.1. Why consider website architecture to boost your e-commerce sales?

Study shows 79% of internet users never visited the e-commerce website again if they were left disappointed by the website performance. That is why the structure of the website should not be intricate as it is of extreme importance.

5.2 Characteristics Of Simple Website Architecture:

  1. Increases website capacity.
  2. It is scalable, having the ability to enhance the site capacity as per demand increase.
  3. Easily understandable by the visitors, clients or customers.
  4. Process efficiently.
  5. In case of an increase in traffic, every server is ready to welcome all the coming visitors.   

5.3 Advantages Of Simple Website Architecture:

  1. Easy to understand: Your clients, visitors or customers will find your website easy to comprehend.
  2. Increase customer growth: Improve clients growth by solving problems smoothly and consistently
  3. Customer support: You will be in a better position to work for your customers.
  4. Raise in ranking: Possibly increase search result ranking.
  5. Boost sales:  Increase rank, result in more traffic and give you more sales.

PRACTICE# 6  IMAGE OPTIMIZATION – Attract Searchers, Increase Organic Traffic/Lead To More Sales:

What do they say? “ a picture is worth a thousand words”.

A simple and pivotal way to attract searchers and also to rank higher on Google is by getting your product unique and decorative images.

6.1 Why Image Optimization Is Necessary:

Study revealed that only 16% of visitors read your website data or information thoroughly or word to word and over 75% just skim the data to catch a small bit of information and images.

If you want to increase your website visitors attention and interest, learn how to optimize an image.

6.2 Advantage Of Image Optimization:

  1. Pictorial Explanation: With just a single picture, complex ideas can be well explained.
  2. Convey message: A well-dressed description can’t convey its message effectively as much as a picture depicts a story.
  3. Enhanced product features:  Images of your products with every angle gives your customer confidence about what are the product features, it’s quality and what to expect from the product.
  4. Quality picture: Well taken images, quickly grab the attention of the customers and fail to resist to buy a certain product. 

6.3 Characteristics Of Image Optimization:

  1. Appealing Image:  Being human, it is in our nature that pictures attract us and if an image comprehensively interpreting your content will surely appeal the visitors to share the content
  2. Right Image:   More than an appealing image, spend a considerable time on the fact that it should be right. What do you mean by a “right image”? Focus on what you want to deliver or what message you want to convey to your viewers!
  3. Technically Flexible:  It allows customers to look at the picture from every angle, provide all detailed shots and provide a zoom in function. Lacking these will leave your customer with many questions about the product.
  4. Image Size: You have to optimize your image to the web file size without compromising image quality.
  5. Social Media Focused: You make sure that your pictures are of such good quality and lucrative that it could be shared on social media. The best way is to add social media sharing button to your website.

PRACTICE# 7: SIMPLE AND EASY CHECKOUT PROCESS/ OPTIMIZATION – Increase Conversion Rate:

7.1. Advantages Of Simple And Easy Check Out Process:

  1. Simple and easy checkout process: Act as an incentive for the customers, to complete their transaction process quickly.
  2. Decrease abandoned checkouts: Reduction in abandoned checkout process which is due to the intricate process.
  3. Higher conversion rate: Behavioral research shows that the higher the conversion rate, if number of clicks are fewer.

7.2. Top Reasons For Abandonment During Check Out Process:

  1. Customers found the extra cost too high i.e shipping cost, tax, fees
  2. Intricate and too long checkout process.
  3. Sometimes website has errors.
  4. Slow delivery
  5. Not enough payment methods
  6. Declining credit card.

7.3. Strategies To Optimize Checkout Process And Make It Easy:

To increase e-commerce sales, the companies are heedful for checkout process conversion rate. Here are the strategies and their adaptation that will give rise to your e-commerce sales.

STRATEGY#1: Keep The Checkout Process Confined In One Page:

  1. Design concise checkout process: Show some mercy towards your customers and design a concise checkout process as short and convenient as possible.
  2. Reduce Checkout steps:  According to the Baymard Institute, the average checkout flow estimated has 5.08 steps. If you want to stand out in the market, keep it perfectly below 5.
  3. Declutter the page: While designing, keep in mind that you limit the amount of information asked by the customer and declutter the page, in order to facilitate the customers to quickly fill the form also give Google auto-fill leverage.

STRATEGY#2: Multiple Payment Options And Hidden Charges:

Don’t give surprises: Surprises are good but there is no need to surprise your customers by revealing the hidden cost that significantly increases the cost of items, it will, in turn, could have a very bad impact on your sales.

Various shipping timings and cost associated with it: The best way is to clarify various ship times and the cost associated with it, is to allow your users to pick their own shipping time and adjust cost according to it.

Multiple payment options:  By providing various payment options, you make sure that no customer goes back without making a purchase.

STRATEGY#3: Offer Complimentary Items

Do you like free purchase? So does your customers!  Offer your customers with complementary items before payment proceedings.This will tempt your customers to purchase again. The purpose is to make your customers experience unforgettable.

STRATEGY#4: Don’t Strangle Your Customers With Registration Process:

Without a second thought, allow your customers to choose between preceding as a guest or through registration. In many of the reasons, compulsory registration results in customer lack of interest and if you still opt it, for your purchase option, then it would be like “Making a rod for your own back”.

PRACTICE#8: DISPLAY YOUR TOP TRENDING ITEMS – To direct Your Customers and Increase Profit Margin:

If you are wondering what to buy or have many choices. You usually go for the suggested items or brands top selling product. Why not use your own purchasing style to boost your e-commerce sales?

8.1 Advantages Of Displaying Trending Items:

  1. Value Direction: Your top trending items sometimes help the wonder customers, who prefer suggested items. Also, customers value direction, they like the “trending” or “best selling” category on the homepage.
  2. Grab Attention:  When the customer will go through your website, might get attracted by your top best selling products.
  3. Shopping For Others: Your showcase about your trending items might help a customer who knows nothing about the product but shopping for a gift, will definitely appreciate your effort and will be helped to buy the best.

8.2 What To Display In Your Trending Items:

  1. Display your most profitable products.
  2. Display the product that is in high demand.
  3. Give you a competitive edge.
  4. Display the products that you want to promote.

PRACTICE#9: ACCESS TO HIGH PRIORITY PAGES BY ADDING INTERNAL LINKS – Boost Search Rankings:

9.1. Advantages Of Adding Links To Your Website:

  1. You help your users to easily navigate through your site.
  2. You can create an SEO friendly architecture for your site.
  3. It ranks you high on search engines as it helps create link juice.

9.2. Characteristics:

  1. Be able to determine your category and high- priority product pages on your site.
  2. Could promote it from your authoritative pages.
  3. Authoritative pages allow passing more link juice to your high priority products that are not well ranked on search engines.
  4. Could feature a priority product in the sidebar using a page specific widget.   

PRACTICE #10:  WRITE  INTERESTING CONTENT – Gain Customer Attraction and Increase Shares:

There is no excuse of being “boring” while writing for your content. The subject of the topic doesn’t matter at all, you just need to learn the right way of writing! and here, congratulations! you have made it possible to attract your customers 🙂
Ask yourself, don’t you want to be entertained? Tell you what, monotonous content is hard to read and mostly readers quit reading such tedious content writing.

10.1 Advantages Of Interesting Content Writing Style:

  1. Create value: Interesting content adds value to your content. It makes the customers spend more time on your content and find it attractive.

  2. Build relationship: When the reader spends more time reading your content, it automatically creates a relationship with your content, which means a relationship with your brand, the product, and the services you offer.
  3. Increase shares: Simple way to get famous, is to write exciting and happening content. It increases the chance that your content will be shared through electronic media or word of mouth. And you gain the ability to attract more customers.
  4. Increase traffic: It does exactly what you are craving for, increase your potential sales and traffic.

10.2 Simple Ways To Write An Interesting Content:

Want to boost SEO ranking, gain traffic or leads, then get ready my friends, to inject a little bit fun in your writing style and differentiate your content from your competitors. Follow the simple way:

NUMBER#1: Storytelling Content:

Let your customers walk through your content in a narrative style. Just recall your childhood, how your granny helped you to understand hard life advice through an interesting story. You get the lesson and also don’t get fatigued.

Use the same granny style, in helping your customers to understand your content and your product features

  1. Approachable: As it is a fact that people are naturally getting interested in a story. It makes your content more approachable, engage your readers and make your content accessible and relatable.
  2. Made-up examples: You can approach any storytelling style. It could be a made -up example or personal experience but make sure it completely relates and transform well with your content topic.

NUMBER#2: Tell A Joke:

You are not required that your content always have to be funny, but your reader must enjoy the content. You can make your tedious content topic more captivating with a little bit of humor.

  1. Good Sense Of Humor: Be careful not to cross a thin line that might make your reader offensive and disheartening. Avoid using obnoxious and overindulgent jokes.  

NUMBER#3: Incorporate Videos And Images:

Not good in cracking jokes, no worries, you still have the way around. Through interesting images, you can make your content happening. A short flicker guiding about your product in some unique way will also give a boost to your content.

  1. Overused Images: Try to be creative with your images. Bring something new that excite your readers. Using the same images will result in readers lack of interest.

NUMBER#4: Be More Conversational:

The way you communicate with others in an informal way, try to adopt that approach. It is easy to read and quickly create a relationship between the narrator and a reader.

PRACTICE#11: USE AUTOMATED EMAILS; Helps Not To Miss Out Your Potential Customers:

Automatic emails sent to your potential customers, alerting them about your coming or online products will help you to target your customers time and boost your sales.

11.1  Advantages Of Using Automated Emails:

  1. Way to approach your potential customers at a time.
  2. Increase your return on investment.
  3. An easy way to communicate with your customers about your upcoming products.
  4. Increase traffic to your website.

11.2.  Strategies How To Make Use Of Automated Emails:

STRATEGY#1: Find Out Your Potential Customers:

  1. Enlist the name of the customers, you find out as your potential customers.
  2. Find out your enlisted customers emails.
  3. From check out process, you can have the emails as people provide during the process.

STRATEGY#2: Analyze Your Potential Customer Needs:

This requires little concentration and understanding. This strategy is going to help you, what you are supposed to email your customers.
For example, You have a customer to whom you have offered a complimentary item before, you will email such customers about that offer again and so on.

  1. Email to alert stock availability: Email to your customers, who couldn’t purchase the product before due to stock non-availability, email to inform, when stock will be available again.
  2. Email about the offering: To increase your website traffic, excite your customers with upcoming offers like discount, sale or provision of complementary items on your products.
  3. Email as a feedback:  If you found any customer not satisfied with your product or services, email such customer to build a healthy interaction between your customers. To let your customers know that you care for them.

STRATEGY#3: Create Hustle And Bustle:

If you are a food-lover and get to know that you will never be able to get your favorite food after today. By any means, you want to taste that food one last time. Use the same technique on your customers then sit back and watch how your website traffic increase in seconds:

Technique#1:  Time by time email your customers that they have left behind and the stock will soon be finished.

Technique#2: Through email alerts, let your customers know that if they didn’t act now, suppose till midnight, they will be deprived of great deals and offerings like discounts, free coupons, sales on their favorite products. From fear of losing the product, the customer will rush to your website to purchase the product.

Technique#3: Use the emotional card, means in any of such days like Mother’s Day, Fathers Day, Christmas, Valentine Day and on any such other events, offer something special. This act will have a long-lasting impact on your customers. They will rejoice and will remember your brand and in turn, your sales will increase.

PRACTICE#12: IMPROVE E-COMMERCE SITE SPEED – Improve Performance and Increase Your Revenue:

 

Hows your website speed? Does it work in a blink of an eye? If not, sorry to tell you, you have got a problem.

As, your website high-speed impact your sales. How fast your visitors can access your website pages to interpret smooth site user experience. User satisfactory experience is the way to boost your sales.

Ask yourself if you want to keep losing your customers due to slow speed or want to gain customers?

12.1 Advantages Of High-Speed E-commerce Site:

  1. Customers satisfied with web performance are more likely to buy the product again.
  2. Better user experience.
  3. Search engines deliver faster loading pages. 
  4. Improves conversion rate.

12.2 4 Ways To Increase Your E-commerce Website Speed:

NUMBER#1: Your Website Page And Image Size:

Reduce your website page size and keep in mind the loading speed, while building your pages. Unless your website requires rich graphics, keep the load time less than 3 seconds.

To Measure Page Size: If you want to measure the size of the page, simply save the page as a web archive folder on your computer from the browser, then measure the size of the folder. In kilobytes, the size is measured.

NUMBER#2: Use Fast Hosting:

During high traffic and high transaction days, your hosting service plays its role. It could be your savior or destruction for your e-commerce site efficiency. Use reliable and fast hosting servers.

NUMBER#3: Minimize Redirects:

Avoid redirects or if you have to use them, then minimize redirects on your site. It increases load times as each redirect is a separate request to the server. When you see that most of the shoppers started using the new URLs directly then the retailers who continue to maintain old links to the new ones should remove such links.

NUMBER#4: Site Speed:

Monitor your e-commerce site speed periodically. It helps to resolve issues proactively. If the load time of your site page is more than 3 seconds, it is needed to be improved. You can use tools that help to measure and diagnose site speed such as Pingdom, Yahoo’s YSlow and Google’s page speed insight.