How to make SEO ranking effective for e-commerce

27-Apr-2016 12:22 PM Digital Marketing

Studies have shown that 44% of all online purchases begin with an online search. This implies that every order placed on your e-commerce store originates from search results. Despite this staggering data, most business owners are not aware of the necessary SEO features while looking for an e-commerce platform. Here is the list of top 5 SEO ranking factors that are highly recommended to be focused on every e-commerce platform.

1. Page titles

This is by far the most important ranking signal of a webpage. In 21st century, ranking in Google is much more than just optimizing one element of a page. The Page Title is still the most important on-page SEO factor to approach on any web page.Google typically displays the first 50-60 characters of a title tag, or as many characters as will fit into a 512 pixel display. As we know, small and crisp words grab attention easily, it's better to keep your titles under 55 characters and you can expect at least 95% of your titles to display properly.

2. Navigation links

This is the text appearing in the navigation menu in the sidebar or, footer of the website. Most of the e-commerce platforms tend to automatically generate text according to the product or, service name. In order to optimize your e-commerce website for search engines, you should have an independent control over these navigation links.

3. Meta description

The main aim of meta tag is to provide a brief summary of your webpage's content in the search listing. It has significant impact on the possibility of a search visitor to visit your page by clicking on the link. Most of the e-commerce platforms do not offer independent control over Meta tags and automatically use the already given page description as the meta description. An effective Meta description should be different from the description used on the product or, service page. It should focus on both the searchable key terms as well as unique features of the website.

4. Page URLs

It is basically the location of the page as shown in the address bar of your browser. It is always advisable to have a Search Engine Optimized page URL so that it results in superior ranking of the page. Some recommendation- using hyphens to separate words when necessary for readability, not to use underscores, spaces, or any other characters to separate words. Overuse of hyphens in URLs can be seen as spammy, so it's best to use caution and limited hyphen in URLs when possible.

5. Integrated blogging platform

Every e-commerce store requires traffic and the best way to generate traffic is blogging as this is estimated that each blog gets at least 4 viewers. Thus you need to have a blogging platform that lets you share a clear idea and information regarding your products or, services or, the vision and mission of the organization and also lets your customers share their experiences and requirements on your website. This platform should also feature engaging blogs that are related to the various products and services offered by your website.

While you must focus heavily on customization and cutting-edge features on your website, you cannot forget the above mentioned points. Design and cool features might help you convert a visitor to customer, but SEO is the key factor behind bringing those visitors to your marketplace.