Building an effective e-commerce website isn’t rocket science, but it does take a healthy dose of finesse to get it right. Sure, you could list a bunch search-friendly products in your digital shopping environment but that doesn’t necessarily translate to increased inbound traffic and it definitely doesn’t translate to better sales.
The hard reality is that building a successful e-commerce website isn’t all that cut and dry.
As you add more and more product-driven content to your site this means you’ll also have to sift through a lot of content that needs to be search-engine friendly, while motivating your site visitors to move through the sales funnel as quickly as possible.
The truth is mistakes will be made in this process. The good news is that all Common SEO mistakes are correctable. Let’s take a look at 3 big ones and how to solve them.
SEO Mistake #1: Uninspiring Product Descriptions
It’s not that your product copy has to be torn out of the script of a Mad Men episode, but it does have read well, be unique and call readers to action. If it does none of these things, your e-commerce website is in trouble. Many up-and-coming e-commerce entrepreneurs make the mistake of using poorly-written copy, or even worse, they use the stock manufacturer product descriptions, which is often times not meant to be customer facing content. In the copy-writing process you need to ensure you’re giving your readers something unique and valuable in the process. This is best done by spending time getting the product descriptions right.
SEO Mistake #2: Lack of Product Reviews Throughout the Site
It’s not a big revelation that shopping is becoming increasingly social. In fact, today’s shoppers tend to feel at ease if they see multiple user reviews endorsing a product favorably. This is a critical aspect of the shopping experience. If you’re weak in the reviews department, incentivize your current customers to review your on-site products. Give a discount on a product or service to customers who write reviews on your product. Make these reviews highly visible so new visitors can quickly and easily read and research products.
SEO Mistake #3: Poor URL Usage
Everything on your e-commerce site from the product copy to the navigation to the page layout and just about anything else you can think of contributes to your success. Yes, this even includes your URLs. The big mistake that many e-commerce site owners make is that they implement keywords into every aspect of their site, but leave the URLs hanging. You must include “speaking” or keyword-friendly URLs. This often means including the title of a product, blog post or other relevant item in the URL. This not only helps make your site more search friendly, but it also helps your links standout in the site visitor’s mind. Remember, this is all about making the shopping experience as easy and seamless as possible. Every aspect of your site must reflect just that.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, your e-commerce website‘s key elements must move the customer through the conversion process as quickly and efficiently as possible. There’s no silver bullet. You must include a wide range of techniques and strategies to get the job done. Improving your site’s original content is definitely one major step in the right direction.
