E-commerce SEO Blunders Business Must Avoid to be Successful

February 10, 2017

E-commerce SEO is not a simple game. One can never expect to start an online store with a wonderfully designed website and mobile app, list a large assortment of products and expect Google to provide them with customers. That is not how it works. Most of the products available online have already been listed in a countless number of e-commerce websites and the search engines have their own way of determining which gets the most attention and the top rankings.

In this highly competitive business world, only the best survives. Hence, there is a constant endeavor among businesses to do their best and stay ahead of others. As a result, businesses have to ensure that their marketing and promotions strategies at always updated. Not only that, they also need to always focus on managing their page rankings and keep them search engine optimized at all times. Thus, SEO for e-commerce websites are an undeniable necessity for every online business.

With more than 45% of the online shopping being initiated through search engines, it has become very important for e-commerce businesses to secure their position in the search engine top rankings. Online retailers have an already populated marketplace and almost every day there are new businesses coming up making it even more competitive and cluttered. This would give loads of options to the consumers and increased challenge to the businesses in retaining their customers.

Hence, online retailers with poor and unplanned e-commerce websites are sure to get lost in the online marketplace. It is thus very important for the online businesses to stay ahead of the times, keep updating their marketing strategies and avoid e-commerceSEO blunders which might adversely affect the business and its performance.

Let us now look at some very commonly found e-commerce SEO blunders which a business must avoid at all times to ensure maximum profitability, customer retention and of course optimized search rankings.

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Top SEO Blunders to Avoid

While an expert will tell you that there are so many possible ways a business can go wrong with search engine optimization for e-commerce websites, let us concentrate on the top most commonly found blunders and how a business can avoid them.

Poor or Irrelevant Content

This is a very common blunder many businesses make. Yes, interesting and viral content is very necessary for a business to thrive in the online marketplace. It also helps in getting search engine rankings and reaching out to a wider audience. But one should always have a check on what kind of content the business makes available. Irrelevant and poorly written content not only confuses the reader but also doesn’t do well in the search engines. Too many keywords cluttered together or a duplicated article can prove to be really disastrous for your SERP rankings. There are so many things to avoid while creating content for improving SEO for ane-commerce website.

Lack of a business blog where relevant content can be uploaded on a frequent basis is another blunder which a business should never make. A blog is a place where one has a scope to interlink and add backlinks to other webpages enabling a better SERP ranking. It would also ensure that the website remains engaging and fresh for its viewers.

Investing on anexperienced copywriter who can deliver unique and original content can be a big advantage.

Old and Outdated Web pages

This is another blunder which business make unintentionally. Just like an old book just collects dust, an old and outdated website doesn’t fair well in the SERP rankings. Updating newer content in the webpage every now and then keeps it fresh and always ahead in the SERP rankings. A word of caution, however, would be to use only white hat SEO methods to update the web pages and never resort to black-hat marketing techniques which would lead to a lot of penalties in the long run. If you have not already invested in a content writer to update your web pages, now would be the best time to do it.

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Using Manufacturer’s Product Description

Let us analyze this situation. We have a product which almost every other business sells in their online store. How would a business persuade or convince a potential customer to buy from them and not from another competitor? A different and catchy product description is your answer. Copying the manufacturer’s description is next to having no product description at all. It is neither unique nor appealing. The right kind of product description would be the one which has the right density of keywords and is interesting and unique from its competitors. One must also project the same rule to the product title and the alternate text for the product image. An appropriate and unique product title which is popular as well and has a set of well-researched keywords in it is sure to make its way up the search results. Never leave your product image without an alternate text.

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Ignoring the Power of Social Sharing

In a world which is dominated by the social media, ignoring its power can prove fatal for the health of an online business. No business is complete without having a strong social presence in the virtual world. Placing a small but prominent share icon on the web page would ensure that your business gets a wider audience and brand promotion with very less effort. A trending business has a better chance at a higher SERP ranking than a lesser known business. A thorough knowledge of which social platforms will be able to promote a particular business will enable the business to target them individually and reap benefits out of it.

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Not giving Prominence to Customer Reviews

Almost all online shoppers have a tendency to first check a product’s review and star ratings before deciding to buy it. Such is the power of customer reviews. It is not only a source of unique and fresh content but also a consistent way to keep a web page alive and updated. Not promoting customer reviews on a web page would mean that the customer might not trust the buying decision or may abort it midway due to lack of backup information. Giving scope to add areviewon the website allows the customer to share their views on the product and also help the future customers to understand the product better before buying, thus increasing their trust and awareness.