You built your store and added your products. You wrote the descriptions. Chose a theme you really like. Then nothing happened. The people you expected to visit your store never showed up.If that sounds like what happened to you here is the thing nobody tells you when you start: it is almost never the products that’re the problem. It is always a simple E-commerce SEO problem that is stopping people from finding your store. Most people do not look past the page of Google. So if your store is not there it is like it does not exist, no matter how good your products are.
Here are the seven E-commerce SEO mistakes I see often and how to fix them.
1. You are ignoring how fast your E-commerce site loads
A slow E-commerce site does not just annoy people. It also costs you money. Google looks at how your E-commerce site loads when it decides where to put you in the search results. If your E-commerce site takes long to load people will not buy from you even if they do find your E-commerce site. What to do about it:
Make your product pictures smaller and use WebP. Only load the things people can see at first.Let peoples browsers remember your E-commerce site so it loads time.
Use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to find the problems and fix them.
Get rid of any apps or scripts you are not using.
2. Your product descriptions are not good enough
Using the descriptions from the people who made the products is a mistake. When lots of stores have the description Google does not know which one to show people. Often none of them show up.
Compare these two:
Not ” jacket. Comes in small, medium and large.”
Better: “This blue jacket is made from material. Has a special finish. It has two pockets and a button to close it. It is good for wear.”
The second one is better for Google. It also helps people decide if they want to buy the jacket.
What to do: rewrite the descriptions for your selling products first. Try to write 150-200 words that’re helpful and tell people the benefits of the product. You can also add questions and answers.
3. Your filter pages are causing problems
If your E-commerce store lets people filter products by color, size or price you might be making lots of pages that’re almost the same. Google gets confused by this. It can hurt your E-commerce search rankings.
The fix:
Tell Google which page is the one.
Do not let Google index the pages that are not important.
Let all the good links go to the pages you want to show up in search results.
4. You are targeting the keywords
Lots of E-commerce store owners try to get people to find them by using general keywords like “shoes”. Those keywords are not very good because they are too general. People who search for “shoes” are not usually looking to buy something. It is better to use keywords like “waterproof trail running shoes for women”.
What to do:
Use a tool to find keywords that people use when they want to buy something.
Choose one keyword for each page. Use it in the title heading and description.
Use keywords for the pages and specific keywords for the product pages.\
5. You have not added markup to your E-commerce site
You might have seen search results with stars or prices in them. That is because the E-commerce site used markup. If you do not use it you are missing out on space in the search results.
Least add markup for products with:
name, description and picture
price and availability\
review stars
Most E-commerce platforms have plugins that can do this for you. Once you add it check to make sure it is working.
6. Your mobile E-commerce site is not good enough
More than half of people search for things on their phones now. Google looks at your E-commerce site first when it decides where to put you in the search results. If your mobile E-commerce site is not good it can hurt your E-commerce sales and your search rankings.
What to check:
Use Googles Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your E-commerce site is good on phones.
Make sure the buttons are big enough to tap.
Do not use pop-ups that cover the screen.
Make the checkout process easy on screens.
7. Your internal linking is not good enough
Most E-commerce stores link to their pages. Then they stop. Product pages and category pages are often not linked to each other. Google thinks pages like that are not important because nobody links to them.\
Fix it by:
Linking from blog posts to product pages.
Adding “you might also like” sections to product pages.
Making sure all your main categories are in the navigation menu.
Using a tool to find pages that nobody links to.
A checklist for your E-commerce audit
Technical
[ ] Your mobile E-commerce site loads fast
[ ] You have special tags on your filter pages
[ ] You have a map of your E-commerce site that you gave to Google
[ ] You do not have any broken links
Content & keywords
[ ] You have unique descriptions for your best products
[ ] You use the main keyword in the title heading and description
[ ] You use specific keywords for product pages
[ ] You have questions and answers on your product pages
Structured data
[ ] You have special markup for products
[ ] You have review stars
[ ] You checked to make sure it is working
Mobile & UX
[ ] Your E-commerce site is good on phones
[ ] The checkout process is easy, on small screens
[ ] You do not have pop-ups that cover the whole screen
Internal linking
[ ] You link to all your main categories
[ ] Your blog posts link to product pages
[ ] You do not have any pages that nobody links to
The bottom line
You do not have to fix all of these things at once. Start with the things that are hurting your E-commerce products the most and work your way down the list. Just fixing a things like E-commerce site speed, product descriptions and special markup can make a big difference in a few months.
E-commerce SEO is not a trick. The E-commerce stores that do well in search results are not doing anything they are just not making the same mistakes that other E-commerce stores are making.
