E-Commerce Website SEO Errors You Need to Avoid

Search engine optimization for e-commerce websites is not simply about having an extensive list of products. Yes, you can achieve a certain level of traffic coming from search engine results. However, you may unknowingly be cannibalizing or decreasing your search result rankings by a number of common but critical errors.

Now, let’s identify these errors so we can know how to steer clear of them. Here they are:

• No unique product descriptions. The easiest way is to copy the product description given by the manufacturer. However, this will negatively affect your SEO efforts, as search engines such as Google give priority to unique content and will penalize sites that offer copied content. It is best to invest some time and effort in this aspect of your e-commerce business. Well-written and creative product descriptions that are unique content do not only give an extra boost to your SEO results but also reinforce your image to your customers. What’s more, great product descriptions may just be what your customer needs to convince him to press that “Buy It!” button.

Now, if creating unique content for the thousands of products is too much and you are forced to copy content from the manufacturers, you can place a NO INDEX meta tag on the pages that have copied content.

• Closing the product reviews facility. For one, product reviews are very effective in convincing a wavering buyer. To some extent, even negative reviews (as long as they are a minimum number) can swing the buyer into finalizing the purchase. This is what is called social proof – the feeling that the purchasing decision they are making is the right one since other people have purchased the same product. In addition, reviews will help you prune your product lines, giving you an indication of what to remove from your website. From an SEO standpoint, product reviews are a good (and free!) source of unique content. The regular influx of reviews also keeps your page alive – as search engines also notice frequent updates and note that in their algorithm. So, feel confident about allowing buyers to give their reviews!
• Failing to optimize pages based on search analytics results. Keyword research remains to be a good SEO strategy. When you fail to consider the wise use of keywords for product descriptions, headlines and title pages, you miss out on the SEO benefits. You can actually use more specific keywords, rather than the more popular ones. You can get more SEO points for the keyword for using “Nike ladies running shoes” rather than “ladies sports shoes”. This is especially true if you have a lot of similar products in your store. It’s best to look at the results of the keyword analytics and then optimize each page using a unique keyword. Also, don’t forget to use model numbers for H1 headings and titles – this makes them more unique.
• Forgetting to integrate social media to product pages. This points to another insight with regards to social proof. People like to ask other people’s opinion about a certain purchase. Give them the opportunity to press the share button, display your product on their newsfeed and ask their social media friends: “What do you think?”. This gives that page more exposure and added buzz, which is, again, great for your SEO rankings. Some social platforms that you should think about integrating would be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+.

About Adaptivity Pro

Want to know more about SEO mistakes that you should avoid in your e-commerce website? Take it from the Utah SEO specialists: Adaptivity Pro! With our team of SEO analysts and strategists, we can work with you to craft an E-commerce SEO strategy that gets you the results you want. Aside from this, Adaptivity Pro also offers a wide range of Internet-based services, including SLC Web Design, Pay Per Click Marketing, Social Media Management and Web Programming.