While an e-commerce site may be set up differently than an informational site, it’s still important that they be built with search engine optimization in mind. Products are the key element of an e-commerce site, but that doesn’t mean that the content and site structure aren’t important. The goal of an e-commerce site is to get people to buy directly from the site and the way that it’s built can be a great contributing factor to its success. Also, people need to know about a site before they visit it and make a purchase, right?
The first step is to include content based landing pages that include more than just a product image and a price. The landing page should direct a user to the product page where the purchase can be made. Unique landing pages are important since users don’t just want to be directed to the homepage. They want to be taken directly to the page that has the product that they are looking for. Like any other website, the content should incorporate keywords or keyword phrases that are appropriate to that page. Each page should also have a relevant and unique meta title tag, meta description tag, and headline. For example, if a particular page is selling ski poles, all of the content and tags should reflect that and be different from the content and tags on the page that sells ski helmets. URLs should also be unique and relevant to each page and incorporate keywords.
Images are an important element of an e-commerce website since people typically want to see what a product looks like before purchasing it. Large images can sometimes take extra time to load and aren’t always search engine friendly, so they shouldn’t be unnecessarily huge, just large enough to properly see. Also, it’s important to include image alt tags since the search engine spiders can’t see the image and only understand what it is based on the tag. However, the alt tag shouldn’t be stuffed with keywords. The search engines might penalize you for it and it provides a bad user experience for customers with disabilities that can’t see the image and rely on screen readers.
It’s also important for an e-commerce website to have easy navigation and a linking structure that can be easily understood. Consider using keyword or keyword phrase anchor text to link from one page to another. Don’t use the phrase “click here” as a link since those words don’t relate to the product offering from a search engine perspective. Internal linking is a great way to promote other products on the site. For example, if a customer is looking at shoes, it would be appropriate suggest a bag that matches and link to it. It’s also a good idea for an e-commerce site to have a breadcrumb, which is basically the users “trail” that looks like this: Home > Skiing Equipment > Ski Poles.
The goal of an e-commerce site is to sell, which should be kept in mind with every SEO strategy that is implemented. In some cases, a selling decision might override an SEO decision. For an e-commerce site that’s OK, as long as it’s selling!
About the Author:
Brick Marketing is an SEM company located in Boston, MA that offers consulting and SEO training services. For more information please call 781-999-1222.
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