Ecommerce websites tend to concentrate on paid search while neglecting SEO.
A grave mistake if you ask.
While this is still an excellent tactic, considering performance is almost instant, let’s not forget that it faces stiff competition. It’s also costly — and its impact ends immediately after the ads stop running.
What you need is a long-term SEO strategy for ecommerce.
It’s less costly. But not only that — it’s also more profitable and more geared towards the long-term success of your business
We’ve prepared this guide to help you figure out the best way to get the ecommerce SEO ball rolling.
But first,
What’s Ecommerce SEO?
Ecommerce SEO is the term used to describe the process of making your online store visible in the search engine result pages.
When people search for your products or services, you want your site or product links to be among the results displayed.
You can get the same traffic through paid search. But SEO is a little bit more permanent and tends to costs much less. Then there’s the issue of ad blindness and ad blockers, which render paid searches a little ineffective.
Why Ecommerce SEO?
What’s the first thing consumers do when they need to purchase a product or service online?
They Google it.
They check out search engines for options, comparisons, tips, and any other information that might help them make a more informed decision.
That means, if your website isn’t among the results that show up, you’re risking losing qualified and interested customers. Your product might be somewhere on the internet, but is it findable?
Ecommerce SEO serves to make your products easy to find. It’s an alternative way to reach potential customers without necessarily paying for ads. Once these customers get to your e-commerce store or blog, you can amaze them with an intriguing copy, motivating call to action, and high-quality products.
Key Ecommerce Stats in Singapore
Let’s take a quick look at some exciting Ecommerce SEO facts in 2020:
44% of online shoppers begin their journey by searching on Google (nChannel).
About 37.5% of ecommerce traffic comes from search engines (SEMrush).
Traffic sources distribution for ecommerce sites:
- 49.3% of the traffic is direct
- 37.5% of the traffic comes from search engines
- 8.0% of the traffic is through referrals
- 3.3% of the traffic is from social media
- 1.9% of the traffic is from paid search
23.6% of orders that ecommerce sites get are a direct result of organic traffic (Business Insider).
With that out of the way, let’s dive into actionable ecommerce SEO strategies that you can apply today.
Ecommerce SEO Guide
Ecommerce Keyword Research
Keyword research is the backbone of every SEO strategy.
Why?
Because it informs every other SEO activity on your site.
You need keywords to optimise your products and category pages.
And unknown to many, your keyword list also influences your technical SEO. That’s because your URLs and site architecture also need to factor in keywords.
As you can see, keyword research is a big part of your ecommerce site, and here’s how you choose the right keywords to optimise your ecommerce site for:
How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Ecommerce Products and Category Pages
There are so many articles written about finding “informational Keywords” for your ecommerce site or blog. You know, the type of keywords that users query into search engines when digging for information.
This article takes a different turn by focusing on ecommerce keywords or product searches. There’s no denying that informational keywords play a critical role in your ecommerce strategy. But the general rule of thumb is that most of your site’s keywords must be fashioned around product searches.
Let’s say you’re selling “Casio Watches” on your website.
That means you have to optimise your ecommerce website for the term “Casio Watch.”
That means your keyword research must be conducted with your products in mind.
So how do you go about it:
Amazon Suggest
Amazon is your competitor. But don’t forget that they’re one of the biggest ecommerce stores in Singapore — and a critical ecommerce tool when you come to think about it.
Here’s how you use Amazon as a keyword research tool:
Head over to amazon.sg, and type a keyword describing one of your products.
Don’t hit enter or the search icon; instead, type in the keywords and wait for Amazon to suggest more keywords for you.
For example, try searching for “best smartwatch,” and Amazon will come up with a list of targeted keywords you may use, including:
- Best smartwatches for men
- Best smartwatches for women
- Best smartwatches for android phones for women
- Best smartwatches under 50 dollars
And so on
These aren’t some randomly generated keywords. But some of the product phrases being keyed into their search bar.
Amazon’s suggestions are very targeted. Otherwise referred to as long-tail keywords, these keywords tend to convert better than short-tail ones. They’re also less competitive, which makes them easy to rank for.
It’s a rinse-and-repeat for every single one of the products on your site.
Keyword Tool Dominator
This keyword research tool scrapes Amazon’s keyword suggestions to recommend a list of fine-combed keywords.
It’s one of the most straightforward ecommerce keyword research tools you’ll ever come across online. All you have to do is enter the seed keyword and watch as the tool works its magic to spit out more keywords for you.
This tool is recommended because it’s faster and has a little more keywords ideas than manual scaping.
For example, when we keyed in “best smartwatches,” Amazon suggests only had eight keyword suggestions for us, but when we keyed the same keyword into this tool, it spits out 48 keyword ideas.
It even allows you to save the keyword ideas or download them for later use.
Wikipedia
You probably wouldn’t have thought of this. But one of the best places to find relevant keywords for your products or ecommerce site is Wikipedia.
That’s because Wikipedia organises things by categories and keywords. In other words, they have already done all the hard work for you.
Just visit Wikipedia.org and enter a keyword that best describes your products and services.
In our case, enter the word “smartwatch” and scan through the Wikipedia page that opens up for all the relevant keywords.
Be sure to check the content box, especially if you’re looking for product category keywords.
SEMrush
After you’ve exhausted Wikipedia, your next stop should be SEMrush.
However, SEMrush works a little bit differently from all the other keyword research tools we’ve mentioned.
Instead of generating keywords based on a seed keyword, SEMrush lets you see what keywords your competition already ranks for.
All you have to do is enter a competitor’s website, and they will present you with a list of keywords that your site ranks for. They’ll even come up with a list of similar websites.
Just repeat the same procedure for the rest of the sites for more keyword suggestions.
Google Keyword Planner
This list isn’t complete without the good old Google keyword planner, the mother of all keyword research tools.
Although Google Keyword Planner is a decent keyword research tool, it’s not that great in generating unique keyword ideas.
For example, when you enter the “best smartwatch” as the seed keyword, the tool will only generate random variations of the keywords.
It’s, however, one of the best tools for checking commercial intent and search volume.
How to Choose the Right Keywords for Your Ecommerce Products and Category Pages
Not every keyword you stumble across deserves your time and effort. Before doing anything, you want to make sure you’re working with the right choices of keywords, or the keywords with the greatest potential.
Here’s a 4-step checklist to help you determine if a keyword is right for your ecommerce website:
Search Volume
Search volume is the term used to describe the average number of times a particular search term is queued on search engines per month.
It’s simple logic: you want to make sure the keyword you use choose enjoys a decent number of searches per month; otherwise, there’s no point in optimising your website for it in the first place.
So, what’s the right search volume?
There’s no such thing as the right search volume. It all depends on your industry. While 100 searches could be a lot for some industries, for some, this is nothing.
Meaning, you have to give it some time, and eventually, you’ll get an idea of what’s “low ” and “high” search volume for you.
What Tool Should You Use to Check Search Volume?
Google Keyword Planner is your friend in this. Just pop the keyword on Google Keyword Planner, and you’ll be shown the corresponding number of searches the keyword is getting per month.
Keep in mind that some of the keywords are seasonal. Such keywords tend to have high search volumes at a particular time of the year and very low at other times.
Examples include sweaters in winter and summer.
The easiest way to find out how a particular keyword changes over the year is to run it into KWFinder. You’ll be presented with a nifty chart comparing its month-to-month search volume.
Keyword Product Fit
Your keyword research assignment doesn’t end with you finding a list of keywords with high search volumes — far from it.
Search volume doesn’t mean anything if the keywords aren’t directly connected to your products.
You’re not just looking to direct people to your ecommerce site. What’s even more important is if these people converted.
You have to double-check each keyword and make sure that they all fit like a glove.
Commercial Intent
Ranking for a high-volume search term is still not enough. You want to make sure your visitors are willing spenders, ready to put their money on your products or services.
Google Keyword Planner is still your friend in this.
All you have to do is run each keyword and check the corresponding “competition” rating.
Competition is the term used to refer to the number of people that bid for that particular keyword on Google Ads per month.
It’s simple: if too many people are bidding on a particular keyword, then that shows that there’s a lot of money to be made on that keyword.
For this, you want to prioritise keywords with “medium” and “high” competition.
Your next stop is the “top of page bid.”
Top of Page bid refers to the amount of money people are willing to spend for a single click on the keyword.
The higher the bid, the better the keyword choice.
Again, this information can be found on Google Keyword Planner.
Competition
How easy is it for you to rank for that particular keyword?
This is where SEMrush comes in.
Just enter a keyword on SEMrush and click on keyword difficulty (on the sidebar).
Look at the “difficultly column” (in %).
The high the percentage, the harder it will be for you to rank for that particular keyword.
Ecommerce Website Architecture
Ecommerce site architecture is the term used to describe how your website’s pages are arranged and organised.
Your ecommerce site has a significantly higher number of pages than your standard website or blog, which is why you’re advised to pay attention to your site architecture.
With so many pages, site architecture is what makes it easy for search engines and users to find your pages.
The Two Golden Rules for Your Ecommerce Site Architecture
Here are the two golden rules to observe when working on your site architecture:
Rule 1: Err on the Side of Simplicity and Scalability
A simple website can be easily understood by both the user and search engines. It’s easy to get the logic of what redirects where.
An ecommerce site is considered scalable when it’s easy to expand and add more products or category pages.
Rule 2: Every Page Must be Three or Fewer Clicks Away from the Homepage
Your ecommerce site shouldn’t be too deep. Too deep in the sense that one has to make more than three clicks to get to any particular page on the website.
One reason for this is that when a site is too deep, its authority will be diluted when you make all the clicks.
How Your Site Architecture Should Be
There should be a homepage with links or menu leading up to your product categories.
The categories can then be grouped into various subcategories, and that’s that. Don’t go any deeper than that.
Remember you’re not just doing this for SEO but also for your site users.
Here’s a Real-life Example of an Ecommerce Website with the Perfect Architecture: Bio beauty
It’s amazing how the site has managed to fit all their product categories on the home page.
And they’re not just listing their products. Plus, all the clicks are limited to a maximum of two.
It gets even better when you look at how they have managed to weave content into their product pages.
It’s a flat structure that’s been diligently designed, which makes it safe to say Google will fully index every single page of this site.
On-page SEO for Your Ecommerce Website
After working on your site architecture and ensuring everything is all set and working according with the two golden rules, it’s time to optimise your product pages and categories.
These two pages will be generating the biggest slice of the traffic that you attract.
Here’s something to think about: when optimising your product or category pages for search engines, you want to be very specific with the search terms you optimise your site for.
For instance, someone searching for “a blue Louis Vuitton bag” is more likely to buy than someone searching for “a bag to buy.”
6 Steps for Optimal On-page SEO for Your Ecommerce Website
Let’s break down each of these processes and what is expected when optimising your ecommerce website for On-page SEO:
1. Optimise Your Title Tags:
Add Modifiers (use words like Cheap, Deals, Buy, etc.) to Attract Long-tail Traffic
Modifiers help you narrow down to specific items that an online user might be interested in. They’re suitable for driving targeted traffic.
Instead of talking about noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones for android phones, why not add a modifying word that users are likely to throw in when searching for these headphones.
If a user is tight on budget, then they’ll definitely throw in the word cheap. Meaning, you have a better chance of netting this user by adding the word cheap to this search term, such that it reads:
“cheap noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones for android phones.
More modifying words that people are likely to use when searching for your products or services online:
- Cheap
- Best
- Online
- Free shipping
- Deals
- Review
2. Use Click Magnet Words to Increase Your CTR
It’s not been confirmed, but we suspect Google uses CTR as one of its ranking signals. But that’s not the only reason you may want to increase your CTR.
Higher CTR translates to more link clicks, which means more sales for you.
You want online users to be enticed enough so they can move their cursor to your search engine results.
It’s simple: there are words that work this magic. We call them “click magnets,” and they include words like:
- X% off
- Lowest Price
- Free shipping
- Guarantee
- Sales
- Same day shipping
And so on
Here’s an example of a product title tag with a click magnet word.
“20% off and Free Shipping on Every Order.”
All you have to do is include something along these lines n your title tag and watch as your click-through rate surges.
3. Optimise Your Description Tag
Again, Include Catchy Phrases like “Free Shipping,” “Great Selection,” “Great Pricing” to Increase Your CTR
You want to capture your users’ attention in the best way possible.
The description tag you use matters a great deal in this. Speaking of which, some of the click magnets we mentioned above can still work with description tags. The only major difference is that a description tag allows you to use longer click magnets.
Examples of click magnet words to use in your description tags:
- Save X% off___
- Free shipping on____ today
- Great selection on _____ at the lowest price
- Our exclusive deal on ___
Here’s an example of a well-optimised description tag, laced with the right amount of click magnets:
Get an Exclusive Deal on Apple Smartwatch. All Orders Made Today Come with Free Shipping. The Lowest Price You Can Find.
4. Optimise Your Product and Category Pages
This is (by far) the most challenging part of optimising your ecommerce website. Essentially, your category and product pages need high-quality content. But unlike writing a blog post, your content must be simple enough to be understood by a 9th grader, written as a conversation, as if you’re talking to your customers directly.
Here are the 3 Golden Rule of Optimising Your Ecommerce Website for Search Engines
5. Use Content of More than 1000 Words
Don’t skimp on words.
Nothing has changed about search engines. They’re still drawn to longer content.
Ideally, you have a better chance of ranking high when your page content is more than 2000 words.
It’s more than word count. Google wants to understand your page. And as it turns out, the more words you write, the easier it is for Google to understand the page.
Plus, more in-depth coverage of any product will help customers understand your product better to make a more informed decision.
So, how do you write 1000 words content for your blog post?
Where this seems like something impossible, try writing a lengthy description for 10 to 50 of your products. You can also include a review section at the bottom of the page.
6. Sprinkle Your Keywords 3 to 5 Times
After writing your product or category page content, it helps to go through it and make sure you have used the right keywords 3 to 5 times.
This has got nothing to do with keyword stuffing and density. You are naturally trying to include a few of your keywords to help Google understand your pages better.
For example, if your target keyword is “Apple Smartwatch,” you want to make sure you have included the keyword 3 to 5 times in your product description (one at the top, one in the middle, and one in the last paragraph).
LSI Keywords
Latent Semantic Indexing keywords are closely tied to your main keywords.
For example, when optimising your page content for “Apple Smartwatch,” you might also want to optimise it for terms that directly connect to it. These are terms such as:
- Apple smartwatch series 3
- Apple smartwatch for women
- iOs smartwatch
So how do you find LSI Keywords for Your Ecommerce Site?
- Again, log into Amazon and enter your target keywords. Now watch for all the keywords that Amazon suggests to you.
- Alternatively, just enter the keyword on Google Keyword Planner, and Google will suggest more keywords for you.
Next, go ahead and sprinkle all these LSI keywords throughout your content. Make sure they naturally blend with the rest of the content.
How to Optimise Your Product Page URLs
Use Short, Keyword-rich URLs
After analysing more than 1 million Google results, it was established your URL length has a direct correlation to your ranking.
First, short URLs were found to rank so much better than longer ones.
Keep in mind that ecommerce sites generally tend to have longer URLs than regular websites.
For example https://www.abdcef.com/category/subcategory/product.html
However, that’s not to say that your URL should stretch out up to 50 characters.
Longer URLs confuse Google. They also tend to dilute the impact of keywords.
Other than that, you also want to make sure your URL is keyword-rich.
For category pages, a better approach would be to use words that describe that particular category.
For example:
https://www.abcdef.com/smartwatches
The same applies to your subcategories, only that it will come after category in the URL structure.
https://www.abcdef.com/smartwatches/androidsmartwatches
https://www.abcdef.com/smartwatches/applesmartwatches
A better approach would be to use your target keywords for the URL for product pages, with each word separated by a dash.
https://www.abcdef.com/smartwatches/androidsmartwatches/samsung-galaxy-watch-3
Some people choose to ignore categories and subcategories in their URLs.
So, their URL becomes something like this:
https://www.abcedfg.com/samsung-galaxy-watch-3
This will make your URL even shorter and dense. And while we don’t recommend it, it’s still not going to affect your ranking.
Internal Linking for Your Ecommerce Site
With ecommerce, internal linking occurs almost automatically. That’s because your site navigation will be naturally creating a lot of internal links.
Internal linking is a strategic part of the SEO process.
First, the links from authoritative sites should link to high-priority products or categories on your website.
Rich Snippets for Your Product Reviews
If you’re looking for the easiest way to stand out from Google’s search results, then a rich snippet is the way to go.
Use product reviews to get an eye-catching rich snippet on Google.
So, how do you get a Rich Snippet on Google?
First, you have to implement a schema mark-up on your product pages.
While this comes with no guarantee, having a schema mark-up increases your chances.
A schema mark-up can be set manually, even though it’s not easy.
Google Structure mark-up helper can help you out with this. Just follow the link.
Just head over to this tool and select “product.”
Next, find a product on your page, preferably one with a rating and reviews on it. Paste the page’s URL and click on “Start Tagging.”
You’ll be asked to highlight which part of the page do you wish to tag. We suggest you highlight your “reviews” and “rating” sections.
For a single review, choose reviews. But if several customers reviewed the product, then you want to select their aggregate rating.
You want to provide as much information as possible. For instance, you can highlight the “count” and the “number of reviews” tag.
After you’re done with everything, you can go ahead and select “create HTML.” You’ll be provided with an HTML code that you can directly add to your product page or existing code.
Be sure to use Google Console to double-check everything and make sure that your schema mark-up is implemented correctly.
Technical SEO for Your Ecommerce Website
Technical SEO is a critical segment of SEO.
It’s essential for all types of websites, and doubly so for an ecommerce website.
The reason being ecommerce websites tend to have so many pages. And as it stands, more pages put you at greater risk of encountering more technical issues.
And since ecommerce websites don’t rely on backlinks, that means technical SEO is the ultimate tiebreaker.
You have to start by running a technical SEO audit
How to Run a Technical SEO Audit for an Ecommerce Site
Top on the list of tools we recommend for your ecommerce site audit is Raven Tool. That’s because it’s the simplest and most thorough of all the SEO auditing tools out there.
Here are the other tools you may use to audit your ecommerce site for technical SEO:
- SEMrush
- Site Condor
- Deep Crawl
- Screaming frog
- Ahrefs
Raven is one of the most straightforward SEO auditing tools you’ll ever come across anywhere.
After signing up, all you have to do is log into the site and click on “SEO Audit” at the left sidebar.
Raven will proceed to audit your site for all the technical SEO errors.
You’ll then be presented with a report detailing all the errors that your site has.
Common Technical SEO Issues and How to Fix them
Too Many Pages
Ecommerce sites tend to have so many pages. But are all the pages necessary?
First, having so many pages means you’ll have to develop unique content for all the pages. It also puts you at risk of duplicate content.
Why this Happens
You’re likely to encounter this error when you have so many products to sell on your website. Remember that with every new product you add, you automatically create a separate page for it.
The problems might also occur when the products only have a slight variation. For example, when dealing with the issue of shoe size.
How to Fix This Issue?
You have to Identify all the duplicate pages and delete them. There’s no shortcut around this. For those that you can’t delete, you’re better off no-indexing them. Alternatively, you can combine them into a super-page.
Look around for deadweight pages or any page that isn’t driving any traffic to your site and ask yourself, “what’s the point of keeping this page.” If there’s none, then you’re better off deleting it.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content will sink your website in the result pages. You want to make sure every page on your website has unique content.
Why this Issue Arises?
Your site will create a new URL for each variation or version of your product.
If the website creates a unique URL for every single one of your product variations, then that means it will also be duplicating some of the content on your site.
Duplicate content can also come as a result of boilerplate content. There are instances when it’s necessary to post the same text snippets on multiple pages. And if this text exceeds more than 100 words, Google might be tempted to pass it up as duplicate content.
Lastly is when you copy and paste your product descriptions.
How to Fix this Issue?
If you can’t rewrite or delete the pages with duplicate content, no-index those pages.
Noindex all the pages that aren’t driving any traffic to your site but are the cause of duplicate content.
After that, you want to rewrite all the content in these pages and index them back.
Site Speed
Site speed interferes with user experience.
It’s also been established that it’s one of the things that Google considers when ranking your website.
Slow load times have also been found to increase shopping cart abandonment by 28%.
Why does this happen?
Bloated ecommerce website: Your site might be inherently slow due to bloated code.
Large image size: high-resolution images are clear and more professional, but they might also be the reason your site loads slow.
Slow Hosting: You must be keen on who you choose to host your website. Look at the resources you’re allocated and make sure they’re powerful enough to handle your site without slowing it down.
How to Fix this Issue:
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- Upgrade your hosting
- Invest in Cloud Delivery Network (CDN)
- Compress your image files
Ecommerce Website Design and Social Media Tips for Improved SEO
The above eCommerce SEO tips and hacks will help your online store get a high ranking in search engine results pages. Before we wrap up this topic, it’s essential to discuss primary factors that significantly impact website search engine optimisation, website design, and social media.
The two will enhance your SEO strategies and give your business the muscle it needs to get ahead of the competition. Here are some secrets on how to ensure your website and social media marketing campaigns complement the eCommerce SEO strategies.
Best 5 Ecommerce Website Design Hacks for SEO
The performance of your website in SERPs depends not only on the content you publish on the pages but also on its overall design. Apply the following hacks to enjoy more organic traffic and a high conversion rate.
1. Focus More on Visual Hierarchy
Bounce rate is one factor that Google and other search engines use to determine the quality of content on a website. If it’s high, the search engines will presume that the content does not match the visitors’ intent.
One sure way of reducing bounce rate is by focusing more on visual hierarchy. Ensure that the elements on every page are well organised to encourage the visitors to spend more time browsing and placing orders. Here are some elements that your eCommerce website needs to have to appeal to the prospects.
- A search bar to help them find products quickly
- Slider
- Contact details
- The name and logo of your brand should be placed in the header
- Intuitive navigation
The five elements will help potential customers move from one page to another and find the information they are looking for quickly. Note that you only have 8 seconds to give them a good positive impression of your brand. So, make sure that the elements are available and optimised to match customers’ needs and expectations.
2. Consistency and Branding
Consistency and branding are vital factors that will determine the user-experience the website offers to customers. Poor user experience will result in low traffic from search engines and a high bounce rate. Even though eCommerce websites are not immune to customers who visit and leave without placing an order, you should strive to keep the rate as low as possible.
Avoid confusing the customers by ensuring that your website design complements the brand and products you sell. The design should create a vibe that directly reflects the brand and products positively.
Photo Credit: Simply Chocolate
Branding will prove to the customers that you are an authority in the niche and your products are the best in the market. Copying your competitor’s branding strategies is not recommendable, as it will make it harder for you to stand out and sell. Come up with unique elements that will make your Singapore online store different from the rest. Give your brand identity by choosing your colours, fonts, slogan, and logo.
In the context of consistency, ensure that the design pattern is the same throughout the website to make it memorable. Customers should not feel like they just landed on a whole new website when they move from the home page to the products page or any other page on the website. If it evokes such negative emotions, you will start noticing a sharp drop in sales and a high cart abandonment rate.
3. Go for a Responsive Website Design
There is no single eCommerce store in Singapore that is successful but doesn’t have a website that customers can access and place orders using smartphones and other mobile devices. With the number of people who shop online expected to hit 4.4 million by 2023, you cannot afford to have an unresponsive website.
Information-based websites have more time to grasp a visitor’s attention, but eCommerce stores don’t have such luxury. You have to do everything possible to immediately grasp the potential customer’s attention they land on the website.
Ecommerce SEO experts say that customers decide to shop or leave an online store within the first 4 seconds. How do you make them stay? By investing in a fully responsive website design. Every page should be optimised to adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes. The users should view and read all forms of content on the page using their smartphones.
If not, your chances of getting a firm footing in the revered Ecommerce industry will reduce. It’s also important to note that Google ranks responsive websites higher than unresponsive websites. Concisely, investing in a responsive website design will boost conversion rate and enhance the effectiveness of other SEO strategies.
4. Revamp the Navigation Menu
As mentioned earlier, an intuitive navigation menu will improve the visual hierarchy of your online store in Singapore. It will make it easy for visitors to move from one page to another as they look at the various products you offer.
Make sure that the menu bars are intuitive and user-friendly to provide the best shopping experience. If it’s well optimised, even the new customers will not struggle to find a product or go through the checkout process. Track the visitors’ movement from the moment they land on the homepage to when they complete shopping to know how to organise the navigation menu.
Here are the top 5 best website visitor tracking tools that you can use for this purpose.
The above tools will help you to understand the digital experience your Singapore Ecommerce store provides to customers. Also, knowing the pages that record high traffic and the specific keywords they use to land there will give you content ideas and point your on-site SEO strategies in the right direction.
5. Use High-Quality Photos
It hurts to see online stores using poor resolution product photos on the homepage and landing pages. Customers expect to see high-definition photos of the products they intend to purchase. The photos give them a clear mental image of the product as they go through the sales funnel. You cannot achieve the same goal with poor images.
Don’t allow substandard product photos to ruin the excellent responsive website design. Take the time to take quality photos of the product and edit them to look sharp and detailed. Go the extra mile and optimise them to ensure they down affect the site load times negatively. Each should have ALT text with one or two of the target keywords to enable search engine bots to index them as they crawl the page.
Watch this video to learn more about Ecommerce SEO.
Best 5 Ecommerce Social Media Hacks for SEO
Singapore has one of the most vibrant and fastest-growing social media communities in the region. More than 4.6 million Singaporeans have active accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, and WhatsApp.
Here is an infographic on social media marketing trends that you should keep in mind.
Photo Credit: Digital Information World
A robust social media marketing strategy will help you connect with this highly active group of potential customers. The strategies will also promote the performance of your off-site SEO strategies if well implemented. Here are five eCommerce social media hacks for SEO to revamp your Singapore online store.
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Stop Posting One-Dimensional Content
On-dimensional content is dull and incapable of convincing potential customers on social media platforms to convert. Over the years, businesses have been creating content that is either inspirational, entertaining, or offering solutions to a problem the target customers face.
Unfortunately, such content does not always work on social media. You need to come up with multi-dimensional content to get the attention of the users. They are probably bored as they scroll down the news feed, and a block of text with an embedded link to your online store won’t get the job done.
Consider sharing more photos, infographics, videos, animations, and even screenshots of results achieved after using the product to show prospects that it delivers the expected outcomes. Ensure that all these engaging content types are top-notch, use solid colours that match your brand to evoke positive emotions.
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Recycle and Curate Content
Competition due to an increase in the number of online stores selling the same or similar products makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to establish a reputable and robust brand. Getting customers to think of your brand as an authority is even more challenging.
One way of making the process easier is by recycling and curating content. Give the target customers a reason to follow your page by providing links to blogs and other forms of content that offer real value to them.
The social media landscape is dynamic and only brands that are agile succeed. The secret to winning this battle is by making sure that the content you publish is education, inspiration, or entertaining. The users demand that you consistently feed them with fresh content, but it’s usually impossible to do that due to time and capital constraints.
All is not lost, though – you can quench their thirst for valuable information by curating and recycling content. One method of curating content is promoting content from other people related to your brand on your profile. The goal of doing this is to share the value with the readers. Be sure to include a link to your website to not send all the followers to the other person’s site or page.
Photo Credit: Neil Patel
The second method of curating content is by taking the time to create unique content that resonates with the audience. The process is more demanding since you have to do extensive topic and keyword research, but the high returns make it worthwhile.
Keep the content simple and straightforward to pass the intended message to the prospects as quickly as possible. Don’t just share links to blogs; spice up the experience for them by posting infographics and videos regularly. User-generated videos that positively review your product can also help keep your audience engaged as you work on the next blog or infographic.
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Use an Automated Checkout Bot
Gone are the days clients would be guided through the sales funnel by sales representatives. Some brands still use this method, and a majority of them suffer from low sales. If you have a social shop on Facebook or Instagram, invest in an automated checkout bot to seamlessly guide the prospects through the process of ordering the product and checking out.
Monitor the sales after installing the checkout bot to know if it’s functioning correctly and customers are responding to it positively.
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Connect your eCommerce Site with the Social Commerce
Integrating the eCommerce site with social commerce will help you to generates more sales through social media platforms. 51% of marketers are using this strategy to keep their sales numbers high despite the market changes.
It sounds complex, but it’s really easy. Most platforms, such as Instagram Shops, allow users to connect their shops with the leading online store in just three clicks. Check out the integration options in your preferred social media platform and spring into action.
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Work with Influencers
Search engine bots are reported to be tracking how active brands are on various social media platforms. They can monitor the number of times the brand is mentioned and website traffic from the platforms. Increasing social signals will have a significant positive impact on your eCommerce SEO.
Above is a promotion done by Kylie Jenner that got more than one million likes from her followers.
Increase your popularity by hiring influencers. Check the followers’ characteristics to know if they fall in any of your customer segments/groups. For example, if your store sells designer shoes, partner with an influencer whose posts are related to shoes. Such an influencer has followers who will respond to an ad about your store and the shoe brands you sell.
The influencers will also boost the amount of traffic that you get from the search engine. Rest assured that the search engines will notice the change in traffic and engagement levels and reward your site accordingly.
Final Thoughts
The above website design and social media hacks will give your Singapore eCommerce store a firm footing in the industry and enhance its profitability. MediaOne Marketing is the go-to agency for quality search engine optimisation and social media marketing services.
Our team will work cordially with you to ensure that you get the best results and safeguard your online store’s sustainability. Get in touch with us for more details.
