SEO Tips and techniques | How to Optimize an E-Commerce Shop

List of content you will read in this article:

Natural referencing, also called SEO, is not magic or an obscure science. Its objective is to optimize a website to make it understandable by search engine algorithms. All these tools aim to give you the right leads for a successful SEO strategy to be ranked first on Google by respecting the ranking criteria as closely as possible.

Free SEO does not exist; it requires significant work to stick to search engine criteria and satisfy readers to obtain traffic properly.

Create an XML sitemap.

For large sites and making it easier for search engine crawlers to crawl, setting up a sitemap to submit through Search Console is a good practice. The Sitemap allows the search engine to be informed of adding new pages and modifying old ones.

Create a robot.txt file

The robot.txt file lets search engines know which parts of the site to index. Thanks to this file, you can ask robots not to index certain parts of a website. It also allows us to give the address of the sitemap.

Identify crawl errors

Analyzing logs and exploration errors makes it possible to detect several problems on your site and facilitate search engines' work. By analyzing your logs and the alerts are given via the Search Console, you could identify dead links, 404 errors, redirection problems, missing images, etc.

Create useful 404 error pages.

It happens that visitors arrive on 404 error pages. It is always a shame to lose a visitor, especially in e-commerce, after the efforts made to capture it. By customizing the 404 error pages, you allow users to continue browsing to other parts of the site, thus preventing it from being permanently lost.

Set canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content.

Canonical URLs are a useful tool. They make it possible to indicate to the search engines which versions of the same content take into account. Defining canonical URLs avoids internal problems of duplicate content, mainly when creating many almost identical pages with different URL variables.

Optimize crawl budget

Google has a crawl budget. To save resources, it assigns each site several pages to crawl daily. For large sites, the multitude of uninteresting pages can affect the good visibility of the most useful pages.

It can therefore be positive to study the behaviour of the robots on your site thanks to the analysis of the logs and thus optimize the passage of the bots on the most efficient pages for your referencing and your conversion.

Use permanent redirects

301 redirects are used to redirect robots and Internet users to other content. When you delete content or change the URL of a page, the 301 redirect allows you to redirect to the new URL or content close to that deleted. This prevents Internet users from falling on error pages and search engines from considering the new URL of the content.

Repair errors caused by Search Console

The Search Console makes it possible to follow the indexing of its site on Google, to identify errors and even sometimes to receive a message indicating a manual error. Therefore, it is important to create an account and register your site there.

Have a fast site

Having a fast site is important for user experience. A site that is too slow scares away Internet users and lowers your conversion rate. So, you should take all the necessary steps to improve the speed of your website. There is a multitude of levers to advance performance:

Choose your CMS wisely;
Reduce the code;
Optimize images;
Use a CDN;
Have a successful host;
Optimize databases.

💡💡Unlock limitless possibilities for your website or application with Monovm's affordable and reliable Linux VPS solution, backed by a robust infrastructure and expert technical support.💡💡

Have simple navigation

Whether for Internet users or search engines, simple navigation makes it easy to find what the user is looking for and navigate from page to page. For the engine, keeping all pages within three clicks of the home page optimizes the crawl of the site and the passage of robots on all pages as regularly as possible.

Switch to HTTPS

Google used to say it gives a small bonus to sites migrating to HTTPS. This is an element that reassures Internet users. More and more browsers indicate when a site does not use this protocol, which can cause fear in the visitor.

When switching from HTTP to HTTPS, a well-defined protocol must be followed so that search engines take into account changes to your site's URLs.

Avoid interstitials on mobile devices.

Interstitial ads should be banned. They are an injury as visitors and can lead to penalties for nuisance to the user experience. Your site must be ergonomic, easy to navigate and offer a quality user experience. Ad abuse and bad placements can hurt your strategy.

Create a mobile-friendly site.

Mobile phone visits can account for over 60% of visits. I do not think its marketing for mobile is nonsense. The mobile version must no longer be a simple adaptation of the PC version; it must be designed for smartphone use. Google gives it paramount importance, and your conversion rate will also be strongly impacted.

Consider search intent

The search intent of Internet users must be the priority. The time when we tried to position ourselves on keywords is over. Today Google is working to detect the search intentions of its users to offer them the appropriate content. Creating content that meets these intentions is therefore the priority in order to try to position itself on the various searches and to offer content that is in line with the needs of the Internet user.

Avoid duplicate content

Duplicate content is a brake. Why would Google waste its time processing several identical texts? It is a waste of resources for him and the Internet users. Therefore, You must be careful not to use it within your site, especially outside. Plagiarism and use by third parties should therefore be monitored.

Optimize long tail keywords.

Long-form keywords need to be worked on. Sometimes easier to target because they are less competitive; they also offer a more precise search intent and, therefore, often higher conversion potential.

Working on long-tail keywords, therefore, makes it possible to capture traffic more quickly than by seeking positioning on shorter and often more competitive keywords. Working in this direction can save time and generate the first conversions faster.

Find out which keywords are driving your competitors' search traffic

Observing your competitors is a good practice. Many tools allow you to monitor your competitors' strategies and better understand the reasons for their success. By finding the keywords they rank for, you might find untapped opportunities and sources of visibility you hadn't thought of.

Use the data provided

The data allowed allows search engines to exploit your content better. The enrichment of search results is largely enhanced with this information. Your site can take advantage of this and gain increased visibility by using the multitude of Rich Snippets available.

Create outbound links

Don't be stingy with external links. The web is built thanks to the link. Giving your readers a link to other quality content makes your content better. Creating an external link does not dispossess you of anything; it enriches your subject and can even reinforce the relevance of your page and improve its referencing.

Give answers to specific questions.

Internet users refer to specific questions. By answering these specific questions, you increase their relevance and the chances of seeing them offered to Internet users. Google is increasingly becoming an answer engine, and the future may belong to voice search.

Create quality content

Content is king, as the English say. Quality content doesn't have to be long content, but it should respond to the search and intent of the user. Quality publications attract shares and, therefore, links. They boost your creative and your content marketing strategy.

Creating semantically rich content, interesting for the Internet user and optimized will be an essential basis for your visibility strategy.

Enrich the semantic field of the pages.

Optimizing the semantic aspect of pages is fundamental. Software now becomes the writers to produce semantically optimized texts for search engines. To understand the content, Google needs to identify several signals.

By including the lexies essential to understanding a subject in the texts, you give the search engine the material that its algorithms need to classify content.

Merge those who cannibalize each other.

Google can have difficulty choosing between multiple pieces of content on the same topic. In this case, a good practice may be to group these articles into one to create a complete and qualitative article on a subject. He will only have one content to analyze and highlight to avoid keyword cannibalization.

Buy quality links

Link buying has become commonplace. Today it is a widely used tactic, and the number of platforms continues to grow. However, it would be best to make rational purchases at justified prices. Links are often sold at prohibitive prices, in no way justified from an SEO point of view.

Final Words

Understanding how Google works is essential. To work well on your natural referencing, it is important to understand the philosophy of a search engine. If the concepts of indexing, Pagerank, search intent or semantics do not speak to you, you should look into the subject. So all the above can give you a great deal of clear-cut knowledge to boost your rank and get a life with your e-commerce thing!

People also read:

Category: