eCommerce SEO: 5 Simple Ways to Get +200% Traffic

There is a myth that growing eCommerce traffic is more difficult than driving traffic to other business websites. However, if you employ the right tactics, you’ll get loads of traffic to your site. 

In this post, I’ll share five proven ways to implement eCommerce SEO that drove organic traffic to our site by 245 percent.

1. Internal Linking

This is an approach of moving from one of web page to another, on the same domain, through hyperlinks. The key benefits to internal linking are that your pages are made stronger, search engines index your pages quicker,= and your page ranking is improved. 

“Internal linking is key for any site that wants higher rankings in Google.” – Backlinko

Although internal linking can be powerful, not many eCommerce websites have maximized this great SEO approach. While many sites link to related items, there is an opportunity for companies to encourage visitors to stay their website for a longer period and help Google navigate their site. Eventually, your content will rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Case Study

We sell KASK helmets, which can be attached to many different accessories depending on the user’s requirements. When we first set up this page, we decided to put only the product’s key accessories in the “Related Items” section, as our competitors have done. What we found was that traffic to those helmet accessory pages, which were not linked, was low. This means our customers did not realize we sold them. We decided to re-optimize the page by organizing all appropriate helmet accessories with a description and link under a tab called “Helmet Accessories.” In this way, customers could view all of the products on one page and be directed to the individual accessory pages for further details.

Bonus SEO Tips of Internal Linking

Make the anchor text descriptive — This improves the link value. For example, “Head over to the KASK helmet collection” is better than “Head over to here.”

Go to older pages and add links to your most recent content — This strengthens the ranking value of old content and helps establish your new pages.

Link from high-authority pages — If you link a new product page from the homepage, more link value will be passed on to it to strengthen ranking power.

2. Refresh Old Content

Original content gradually becomes less “fresh” as time goes on, which is one of Google’s main factors in determining website quality. Some ways to refresh old content include writing new copy and inserting new links or images.

“When you tell Google your content is new, you’ll get a spike in traffic” – Neil Patel

3. FAQ Page Structured Data

Google launched this new snippet last year. The frequently asked questions (FAQs) page snippet displays a list of FAQs and answers in a listing of search results. The benefits are that it takes more space in SERPs to increase your visibility and boost eCommerce traffic.

“I have gained more than 2,000 clicks in less than three months for a set of keywords that brought only 1,000 clicks before I added the FAQ snippets.” – Search Engine Journal 

Case Study

We implemented FAQ page snippets to our product pages that ranked on the first page in SERPs. If a page isn’t on page one, Google may not display the snippet even it is correctly implemented. Then, we came up with three sets of questions and answers that show the product benefits to drive click-through-rate (CTR).

Step-By-Step Guide to FAQ Structured Data

Implementation on Shopify sites is as follows:

• Add the questions and answers on the webpage. Based on Google guidelines, the complete question and answer must be displayed on the page, or Google will not display the snippet.
• Generate FAQ Page structured data code. JSON-LD code is the most recommended format by Google. Head over to this free FAQ Page schema generator to get the JSON-LD code. This tool is very user-friendly as you only need to pop in the questions and answers and then copy the entire code on the right-hand side.
• Go to “Show Editor” of Shopify, paste the code at the bottom and hit “Save.”
• Ensure the FAQ Page code is correctly implemented by testing the URL with Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
• Can’t wait to see the result? Go to Google Search Console and ask Google to recrawl your URLs. You’ll see the FAQ page snippet in SERPS in 15-30 minutes.

Important Notes

– Don’t use FAQ page schema for advertising purposes

– Invalid to pages where users can submit multiple questions and answers

– Even if your pages are correctly tagged, Google cannot guarantee your structured data will always appear in search results 

– See the reasons for not displaying structured data

 4. LSI Keywords

When it comes to SEO for eCommerce product pages, writing content with latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords is critical, so search engines understand content at a deep level. For example, on our safety work boots pages, we included terms closely tied to the target keyword “safety work boots.” These keywords include “work boots with safety toe” or “puncture-resistant work boots.: The bolded words are LSI Keywords that Google relies on to determine a page’s overall topic, helping rank the site for semantically related searches no matter your target keyword. Therefore, LSI keywords should be your on-page SEO tactic for eCommerce. To find LSI keywords it is recommended to use the LSI keyword generator: LSI Graph for best results.

Case Study 

We generated a list of LSI keywords for our “2 Inch Ratchet Straps” product page, but only selected the most relevant semantic keywords to use throughout the page naturally in positions like the title, image alt text, H1, H2 and content. 

By using these terms to create SEO content for our eCommerce site, the product page ranked in the top three search results for the target keyword and unique page views for that page increased by 269 percent in three weeks.

5. Backlink Strategy

It goes without saying that getting backlinks is difficult, but it is at the heart of off-page SEO and carries more than 50 percent of the ranking factor weight. Having tried out different approaches, we found that teaming up with business partners is the best tactic of off-page SEO for eCommerce website owners.

Find a Distributor

When we get a new supplier on board, we ask to be linked from their website. The easiest way is to get yourself mentioned on their distributor page. If you don’t succeed you can try the following tactics:

Testimonial

Another option is to write a testimonial for your business partners, which can get you a link underneath the review.

Guest Post  

Finally, to get a higher quality backlink, you can write a guest blog post and use keyword-rich anchor text, e.g. “harness for working at height” in the post to link to your page. Unlike links in the footer, these links are surrounded by relevant content and can quickly boost site performance. Instead of linking to the homepage, linking deeper to your page can increase site navigation and improve page ranking. 

Which of these five tips are you most interested in trying? Leave a comment below and let me know!