Ecommerce SEO

Author: Bradley Porter
Published: July 29, 2020
Updated: September 9, 2020

“Search engines exist to help people find what they are looking for. To do that, search engines must provide a diverse set of helpful, high quality search results, presented in the most helpful order.”—Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

Table of contents

• 1.0 Introduction
• 1.1 The value of SEO
• 2.0 Product information (PIM)
• 2.1 Product naming
• 3.0 Content creation
• 3.1 Copywriting

Introduction

The principles that drive ecommerce SEO best practices haven't changed since JumpStation first learned to crawl, index and search. In fact, they existed well before the first modern search engine, in the era of curated directories. Managed entirely by hand, these directories often specialized in one area. The sites listed gained exposure, as well as credibility. As the World Wide Web grew, automation was needed to scale and centralize those indexes, and the expert guides were lost.

Since then, search engines have sought to replace that expertise and authority at scale, competing to deliver the best results. By delivering the best recommendations, a search engine gains trust. In turn, this feeds back to the recommended sites, which gain trust by being a top recommendation. Following a carefuly considered set of best practices, anchored to those principles, is the most effective way to build an ecommerce site, compete for organic recommendation, and grow online sales. Ecommerce SEO best practices also improve the chances of inspiring customers via paid advertising, email and social media.

This ecommerce SEO guide doesn't have everything. It isn't watered down for a wider audience; it's for ecommerce SEOs. I hope it's helpful for those starting out, and refreshing for those who have years of experience. It might also be useful for anyone who wants to learn more about an in-house SEO's work, and those who want be a better business partner with one. Perhaps oddly, most of what's ahead isn't directly managed by SEO personnel. Instead, it's the ecommerce SEO team's job to educate, collaborate, solve problems, and measure (success and failure). Guiding teams that manage other pieces of the ecommerce puzzle is as important as executing hands-on optimization tasks.

Product information management (PIM)

Collect complete data on each product. Employ product experts for quality control. Organize it. Make it work for the customer.

Product naming

Whenever possible, name products using the most commonly searched structure at the beginning. Typically, this is the brand and model name (or model number when it is as familiar or useful as a name). However, some products are more often searched with the series name before the model. If possible, confirm the complete product name with the manufacturer and double check the name before a new product goes live.

Product names that are missing key elements, have spelling mistakes, or have less important information forced in between critical elements will always be weaker than those with proper naming. There are times the series name is unimportant, or not customer facing. In those cases it might be best to leave it out of the product name. Category managers tend to assume that more information is better, or that all information is important.

In reality, the products with the most widely used search query are almost always in a better position to succeed. Brand names can also suffer from this, as e-commerce company can often be convinced by a manufacturer to change a widely accepted brand name to a lesser known, more official one.

Which important dynamic elements could the product name impact?

1. H1 tag
2. Page title
3. Meta description
4. Body copy
5. Structured data
6. URL
7. Link anchor text
8. Image data

Why is the product name critical to ecommerce?

If the product is misnamed, omits key information, or breaks up high value text strings with less important information, search engines will assign that product page a lower quality score than its competition.

What is the impact of a product naming mistake?

With a lower quality score, search engines will rank the page lower than normal. From organic position 1 to position 2, there is roughly a 50% drop in traffic. From position 1 to position 5, a 90% drop. PPC costs will also increase.

Who controls the product name in PIM?

The category managers are often the primary product subject matter experts. They also typically own the relationship with the vendors, who supply the information for the product build. The category managers often must approve the product to enter workflow.

What are the most common mistakes in product naming?

1. Omitted elements; like a model name or number.
2. Broken brand-model string; less important text added at the beginning of the name.
3. Brand name duplication; sometimes the ecommerce platform is configured to automatically concatenate the brand name with the product name. In this case, a programmatic validation to prevent brand name duplication is ideal.

How can product naming mistakes be prevented?

When new products are entered into PIM, the name must be reviewed carefully by the category merchant. From there, the name passes through the system to be reviewed, at the end, by the secondary subject matter expert, the copywriter.

Content production

To produce high quality SEO content for ecommerce sites, it's important to work with a subect matter expert. As search engines improve their natural language processing, they are more able to distinguish thorough, accurate and helpful content from the rest. The only future proof approach is to publish the best work possible.

Copywriting

Demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (E-A-T). The quotes in this section were taken from the Google Search Quality Evaluator Guide and Google Ads documentation, and edited for flow and brevity.

1. Explore the pages that rank the highest for the most valuable terms. To outrank them, the page(s) will likely need to address all of those same topics (and more, and better).

“High E-A-T pages on hobbies, such as photography or learning to play a guitar, require expertise.”

2. Make it clear that page is about the core concept and its related terms with specific headlines and callouts. Keep nonspecific, overly creative language and boilerplate text to a minimum.

“Quality score estimates how relevant your landing page experience is (how well your landing page content matches a person’s search terms). Higher quality scores typically lead to lower costs and better ad positions.”

3. Design the page top-down to serve bottom-funnel needs first. Address the most important (profitable) searchers’ intent as quickly and easily as possible.

“High quality MC takes a significant amount of time, effort, expertise, and skill. Very high quality MC is original, factually accurate, clearly written, and comprehensive.”

4. Many people landing on the page will likely have already decided that they will purchase the product or service. Some are ready to make the purchase at that moment, while some need more information for consideration and comparison. To maximize conversion, address these shoppers' needs and concerns from the bottom of the funnel to the top, from most critical to least critical.

5. Include social proof and address frequently asked questions. As readers move down the page, they’re looking to consume more specific (and equally, if not more helpful) content.