The end of the financial year is just around the corner, and many businesses are preparing for both its conclusion and the start of a brand new financial year. And because SEO is a long-term strategy for growth and success, it’s also a good idea to take a look at how you can start this new financial year right with your SEO.
Within the e-commerce industry, the global market expected to rise this 2022 to a whopping $5.55 trillion. And that figure is only expected to grow over the next couple of years.
If you’re looking to turn your business into an e-commerce business in the upcoming weeks or months, then it’s important to take into consideration the steps that you need to take for your business to take off on the right foot.
Thankfully, we’ve compiled in this article a shortlist of steps to ensure that your e-commerce business is optimised for both conversions and SEO. Let’s take a look.
1. Start with Optimising Your Homepage
Everything starts with the homepage. One of the most visited pages on your website, it’s important to ensure that everything on your homepage is optimised and working. The last thing you want is to have one of the links in your navigation menu to lead potential clients to a 404 error page.
But what, exactly, on the homepage do you need to make sure is optimised?
Put All the Important Information Above the Fold
Content that is considered “above the fold” is usually any and all the content at the top of a page, before one starts scrolling. Here it’s recommended that you put in all the important information, such as your branding logos, navigation and search bars, shopping cart, contact information, and primary call-to-action.
If your website at the top of the page has a banner (often called the hero banner), one best practice is to make sure that the hero banner contains the pain point that you’re trying to solve for your customers. That way they’ll know right away if you’re business is one that can solve their problem.
Primary Call-to-Action
Often attached to that hero banner is a call-to-action. It’s here that you put in the number one thing you want your visitors to do once they land on your homepage.
Whether that’s to subscribe to your mailing list, register for a course, avail of a flash sale, or start browsing through your products, you want that message front and center for visitors to see the moment your homepage finishes loading.
Optimise Your Loading speed
Speaking of loading speed, this is a major factor in your SEO rankings. Slow loading speeds usually result in higher bounce rates. And bounce rates are a huge element in determining your search engine ranking. A good loading speed for any website is usually between 0-3 seconds.
Optimise Homepage Title Tag, Meta Description and Images
All of the above are important elements in search engine optimisation. Make sure that all these elements on your website and web pages contain relevant keywords. While most make sure to do so on titles and meta descriptions, one sometimes overlooked aspect at image alt texts. These are the snippets of text that would replace images should they fail to load open visiting a certain page. These are also the elements that Google crawls through to determine how to rank your images on their search engine. So make sure that every element on your blog posts and pages is optimised for search.
2. Make Your Site Mobile Responsive
Mobile responsiveness is also another important factor that affects not just SEO, but your overall e-commerce business. Mobile devices generate roughly half of all global traffic, and about 3.5% of all mobile visits to e-commerce websites are converted into purchases.
Mobile search is only increasing globally, and so if you haven’t optimised your website for mobile just yet, there’s no better time than today to get started.
3. Increase Site Security
If you’re an e-commerce website, then the most important thing that you can do for your customers is to ensure that their information is safe and secure.
This is where a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate comes into play. Most web hosting companies and content management systems (CMS) already offer SSL certificates along with their product plans. Given that, it would make sense to avail of their services once you purchase a domain and hosting. Of course, there are other companies whose specialty offers include SSL certificates at either cheaper or more premium prices.
Obtaining an SSL is of utmost importance, especially since Google has officially pushed their HTTPS-First mode. This means that any visitors attempting to access a website that’s in HTTP and not HTTPS, will first be given a warning that the website that they’re about to enter isn’t secure. And for an e-commerce website, that’s the last thing you want your visitors to be notified about.
4. Improve Product Pages
It’s always a best practice to feature your best products on your homepage. However, when it comes to optimising your product pages themselves, there are a few key elements you should take into account:
- Product Page Titles
- Product Images
- Product Descriptions
- Image Alt Texts
In terms of SEO, your titles, meta tags, meta descriptions, and image alt text should all contain the keywords that you want to optimise the page for. This helps you rank better on search engine results pages.
When it comes to product images, on the other hand, it’s always a good idea to showcase several images of your product. Show all the angles of your product so that customers get a good idea of what to expect.
Best of all, you can also include some user-generated content from your customers. Ask permission from people who’ve purchased your product if you can share their posts on your social media page or website. This helps solidify social proof that there are people out there that have purchased and loved your product.
5. Reduce Cart Abandonment
According to the research done by the Baymard Institute, about 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned. One of the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment is unexpected costs and high shipping costs. In fact, 56% of shoppers attribute their abandonment to these additional fees and charges.
A few ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment include:
- Providing free shipping
- Offer 100% money-back guarantees
- Avoid website registration requirements
- Add testimonials
If You Need Help With Optimising Your E-Commerce Website, The Search Marketing Experts Team Has You Covered
Now that you’re familiar with the steps necessary to rank your e-commerce website higher for SEO, there’s nothing left to do but optimise those pages! We hope this article has cleared things up enough to pull you out of the rabbit hole and make search engines seem less intimidating. Ready to increase your SEO knowledge even further? Contact the team at Search Marketing Experts today for even more insight into the wide world of SEO! We’ll be there to help you increase your website rankings and achieve online success for your business.