Most Singapore marketers understand the importance of technical SEO. However, it’s also just as crucial to understand that sometimes problems can arise as a result of strategy. This is especially the case when it comes to e-commerce websites. Let’s take a look at the most common problems e-commerce Singapore website owners face and how they can go about fixing them.

1. Short or Duplicate Product Descriptions

Most e-commerce websites have a large inventory. Many have thousands, and sometimes millions of products on their site. That is why it comes as no surprise that a lot of Singapore business owners don’t put too much time or effort into the descriptions of their products. Or even worse, the descriptions are completely automated or have been copied directly from the pages of the original manufacturer.

Here’s the problem: the shorter your product description is, the less content the search engines will have to read. Also, by copying the manufacturer’s description, you’re creating duplicate content. This means that your site will be no different than any other website that is doing the exact same thing. Neither of these things are good for your rankings–especially with the release of the Panda algorithm.

Here’s how to fix it:

So what can you do if you already have thousands, or even millions, of products with weak descriptions? Do you go back over your entire website and write long content for all of them? No, you shouldn’t. If you already have a lot of product pages on your website, then you can correct this by simply focusing on the product pages with the highest value and create copy that converts and a landing page that they can appear on.

You should also consider user-generated content. Allow your customers to leave reviews for all of your products. This way, even if there happens to be duplicate content on your website, you can overshadow it with this unique content.

2. No User Reviews 

This brings us to our next point, not only can user reviews help to beef up your content, but it can also play a huge role in getting organic traffic. Though it’s not exactly clear if they affect the search engines indirectly or directly, what is very clear is that they can really give your digital marketing a boost. Many Singapore companies are unsure when it comes to opening their website up to customer reviews because they never know exactly how it will affect their reputation. They are afraid that customers could possibly leave negative comments. However, it’s been proven that reviews, no matter their nature, can drastically increase conversions.

3. No Focused Keywords

When it comes to product descriptions, website owners tend to focus on discussing the brand and model of the product. However, they should be using words that people are most likely to type into the search engine when looking for the product. Yes, there are some customers who will search for the product by the brand and model, but most will use search phrases that are generic.

Here’s how to fix it:

Instead of concentrating on the model, use keyword tools to find out what your customers are actually typing into the search bar. Create a blog so that you can use these keywords. Target each page with 3 to 5 closely related keywords. Take a look at your alt and meta tags, headlines, and URL. Also, make sure that the above-the-fold regions of your pages contain semantic keywords.

4. No Informational Content

If you want to do well in the search engines and build brand awareness, then it’s important to create content that is informational. Far too often, e-commerce website owners will create content that is based solely on the transaction. The problem is, these terms rarely ever rank, if it all. By creating content that is helpful, your website will be able to rank for keywords that are less competitive.

Here’s how to fix it:

Instead of guessing keywords, try entering page URLs into Google’s keyword planner and only focus on those that are informational keywords not transaction keywords. Once Google recommends something, find the keyword difficulty with SEMrush. Then, enter “site:example.com + your keyword to find out which of your pages has the best ranking potential for your keyword. Next, enter inurl:forum + keyword to search forums for the questions that people are asking about your keyword. Finally, update all of the content that offered little to no substance.

5. Redesigning the Site Without Considering SEO

There is nothing more devastating that redesigning a website so that it can attract more organic traffic, only to lose most of the organic traffic that you already had. This is what happens to a lot of e-commerce website owners who redesign their website. The expect the change to increase conversions but it only hurts them in the end.

This usually happens because they don’t take SEO marketing into consideration when making their plans. In many cases, the highest performing keywords will be deleted and pages that linked to it will be redirected to a 404 pages. The e-commerce website may undergo a change in URL structure and previous pages will point to nothing at all. The redesign may even result in duplicate content.

Here’s how to fix it:

While these issues can be repaired with tedious changes, the best cure is prevention. Before you undergo a website redesign, you should always consult a Singapore SEO expert. This will ensure that everything is taken into consideration before the execution.

6. Poor Migration When Switching Platforms

There’s nothing more exciting than outgrowing your e-commerce platform. When you experience an increase in market share, you inevitably need to switch to a new one. Or maybe you simply need to gain access to more features that your current platform does not offer. Whatever the case, if you are not careful, the switch could lead to a dip in your search engine rankings. Perhaps your pagination is handled by Java instead of HTML. This may make it difficult for the search engines to crawl or even see.

Here’s how to fix it:

Just as is the case with redesigns, it’s best that you work to prevent this issue before it happens. Get an SEO expert involved before making major changes like this.

7. Overlooking Your Best Keywords

It’s easy to overlook the keywords that are already bringing in a nice amount of traffic. These are essentially the ones that have the most promise and can most benefit your business. However, you must know how to find them and capitalise on them.

Here’s how to fix it:

If you would like to get the most out of your e-commerce SEO campaign, then you need to grab the low hanging fruit. In this case, that would the pages that are already well-optimised for a certain keyword. As mentioned earlier, you should do a website search to find out which of your pages are performing the best in the search engine. This can be done by viewing your keyword rankings in Google’s Search Console or SEMrush. Not only should you identify these keywords and add more of them to your website, but you should also do your best to improve upon them.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of things that go unchecked in the world of e-commerce. Unfortunately, these things can develop into big issues if they are not taken care of. Luckily, with a little time and investigation, Singapore business owner can double or even triple their conversion rates and amount of organic traffic.