SEO Tips

WordPress Newsletter Article

So you have a terrific online store, and you want it to flourish. One way to increase sales is by driving organic traffic to your site. It’s an effective method for attracting customers without having to spend money on ads. This is why many sites are using SEO to draw customers in, according to Search Engine Journal. Wondering how you can get started? Here are four eCommerce website SEO tips that can help grow your bottom line.

1. Make your site easy to understand and use

First off, make sure your site structure is clear, mobile-optimized, and fairly intuitive. It should be easy for visitors on a variety of devices to understand how to use your site and find what they are looking for. Customers must be able to easily search for and locate the products they want. Using the shopping cart and checking out should be a snap, as well. If visitors find your site accessible and helpful, then search engines will, too — and they’ll boost your search engine ranking, sending more organic traffic your way.

2. Choose relevant keywords

Relevant keywords are essential for your site, particularly if you have an eCommerce blog. You can get started with keyword research using a tool such as WordPress SEO by Yoast, SEMRush, or Google Keyword Planner. First, determine the top two keywords you want to rank on. These should be search terms that your target audience might use when searching for your site. They may be competitive, but you should be able to increase your ranking over time by including them on relevant parts of your site, such as meta descriptions, product pages, blog posts, permalinks, and image names. Consider also including less popular, long-tail keywords that will help customers find you. Once you’ve done this, periodically check the keyword ranking for your site to keep track of how you’re doing.

3. Optimize product images

Images frequently appear in Google search results, presenting you with a golden opportunity to get your products noticed. To do so, optimize your product images and primary category images for SEO. In most cases, especially where product photos are concerned, you’ll want to use a high-quality JPEG image. But make sure that the file size isn’t so large that it’s slow to load. Otherwise, customers may decide to move on and leave the site. If the size of the image file you want to use is too large — say, over 2 MB — you can re-size it with image-editing software.

4. Write great product descriptions

Each product in your store should have a brief, well-written product description that is optimized for SEO. It’s important to include relevant keywords in your product descriptions, but only if they fit naturally. Search engines often penalize sites they think are engaging in keyword stuffing — that is, forcing a particular webpage full of keywords in an attempt to game search engine rankings. Although you can use the manufacturer’s product description, writing your own product description usually produces better results.

With these four eCommerce website SEO tips, you can begin driving more organic traffic to your online store. If you have a WordPress.com Business or eCommerce plan and want to optimize your eCommerce site’s SEO even more, you can explore WordPress.com SEO tools or take a free online course on WordPress.com Business SEO.