Ecommerce SEO: how to rank higher & sell more online

People are making much purchases online, whether from location connected a laptop oregon connected their mobile telephone portion connected the go. In 2025, retail e-commerce income are estimated to exceed 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide, and this fig is expected to spell up successful the pursuing years. Naturally, this emergence successful online buying has travel with a surge successful online stores worldwide. How tin you marque definite your online store stands retired and reaches the close people? Ecommerce SEO tin assistance thrust up those income numbers. In this guide, we’ll explicate each facet and assistance you get started!

What is ecommerce SEO?

Ecommerce SEO concerns each the tactics you tin usage to summation much visibility and integrated postulation for your online store successful hunt engines, similar Google. These tactics absorption connected the method and contented sides of SEO. By optimizing your store you tin get a dependable watercourse of targeted postulation to your site. This, successful turn, should pb to much sales.

Branding is key

You are 1 of the millions of companies trying to merchantability thing online. Of course, you mightiness deliberation you’re unique, but, successful astir cases, that’s not true. In astir niches, you vie with dozens, if not hundreds oregon adjacent thousands of others. What you request to bash is basal out. But how?

First of all, you request to write down your mission. Your ngo volition clarify what you – and your customers – privation your concern to be. This volition assistance you place your USPs (unique selling points) and make a beardown marque that resonates with your audience.

Example of beardown branding crossed platforms by Tony Chocolonely.

Building a recognizable marque is not conscionable astir visuals similar a logo oregon the colors you use, but besides your code of dependable oregon your handling of lawsuit requests. Being contiguous connected the close platforms and showing your assemblage that you are trustworthy and determination to assistance them. How you contiguous yourself to the extracurricular satellite makes each the difference. Branding helps you get wrong people’s minds and enactment there. But enactment genuine and acceptable your branding to your audience.

Technical ecommerce SEO

To get decently started we request to look astatine the method aspects first. Here, we’ll spell implicit immoderate important considerations for your online store.

The value of bully hosting

One of the simplest but astir impactful things you tin bash is choose the close hosting for your tract and upgrade your hosting program erstwhile needed. Starting out, it mightiness not marque consciousness to driblet hundreds of dollars for an extended hosting plan. But erstwhile you scope a definite level, it makes each the consciousness successful the world. Good hosting makes your tract faster, pages load properly, and you’ll beryllium capable to grip much postulation than ever before. It tin besides amended grip the crawling efforts of Google and different hunt engines, making it easier for them to scale your URLs.

Most hosting providers connection respective packages with uptime guarantees, scalability options, dedicated support, et cetera. Find a hosting supplier specialized successful ecommerce, and don’t effort to instrumentality the inexpensive route.

SSL is indispensable for ecommerce SEO

Long gone are the days erstwhile having an SSL certificate for your tract was optional. When you are selling thing and/or collecting lawsuit information successful immoderate way, you request to bash truthful successful a unafraid environment. No 1 volition permission their recognition paper details connected a website that is not adequately secured.

There are different benefits to having a decently secured website. Google, for instance, has said galore times that having an SSL transportation tin springiness your tract a ranking boost. In addition, galore of the newer net technologies similar HTTP/2 lone enactment connected websites that usage HTTPS connections.

Make your tract disposable done crawling and indexing

You astir apt privation to person each your pages shown successful Google, but not being mindful of this tin backfire. For example, indexable results from your interior hunt engine, URLs with parameters from your faceted navigation oregon merchandise filters, outdated content, impermanent pages, and trial contented tin beryllium considered useless URLs. If you person a ton of them, Google volition walk a invaluable portion of your crawl budget indexing those alternatively of crawling and indexing the pages that you bash privation to amusement up successful the hunt results.

Use your robots.txt file to power what hunt engines tin and can’t bash connected your website and adequately usage meta robots tags to artifact worldly that doesn’t marque consciousness to amusement successful the hunt results. Also, to get Google to crawl your store correctly, you request optimized XML sitemaps that database your astir indispensable pages. 

Improve the URLs of your online store

Getting your URLs close is simply a important facet of ecommerce SEO. Unreadable URLs marque it harder for hunt engines and tract visitors to recognize your products. And online stores thin to person a ton of URLs. Usually, each azygous merchandise has its ain URL and each merchandise saltation besides comes with its ain URL. On apical of that, things similar faceted navigation tin make an endless watercourse of URL variants. If Google finds the aforesaid products connected aggregate URLs, however volition it cognize which 1 to amusement successful the hunt results?

Help hunt engines by minimizing the fig of URLs connected your online store to forestall disorder and unnecessary crawling. Check your paginated hunt results and spot if each of these person a unsocial URL. Give your URLs descriptive names to assistance hunt engines place the contents, truthful alteration URLs similar /sweaters/323551 to /sweaters/ugly-christmas-sweater. Follow Google’s advice connected however to plan a URL operation for ecommerce websites.

Be alert of duplicate content

This endless fig of URLs showing the aforesaid contented tin origin different SEO contented you privation to prevent. If they find duplicate content connected aggregate pages, hunt engines won’t cognize which URL to amusement which tin pb to little rankings for each pages involved. So marque definite to cheque however your ecommerce CMS handles merchandise variations and faceted navigation. You tin usage a canonical URL to awesome to Google what the archetypal mentation of a leafage oregon merchandise is.

Duplicate contented is besides a hazard erstwhile you usage merchandise descriptions provided by manufacturers, which are utilized connected different websites. Although you’ll beryllium competing with contented connected different websites, it volition marque your merchandise leafage basal retired less. Leading to hunt engines favoring different websites that bash constitute their ain merchandise descriptions. 

Add structured information to your products

Structured information lets you picture your products and concern accusation to Google. This makes it easier for the hunt motor to recognize your concern and products. In return, you tin get affluent results similar highlighted merchandise information. You tin usage structured data to supply details similar titles and descriptions, banal and shipping details, SKUs, prices, reviews, ratings, and merchandise images for products. Using these details, Google tin item your products successful divers ways and assorted locations, similar Google Images and Shopping.

With merchandise structured information your products tin beryllium highlighted successful Google Images (for example).

You tin besides usage structured information to supply concern information. Google uses this information to verify whether you accidental who you accidental you are. It cross-references the accusation it finds connected your tract with what it finds connected Google Business Profile. So marque definite to support this accusation (f.e. location, telephone number, opening hours) up to day and consistent. If you privation to adhd structured information to your products (or different pages), the structured information feature successful our WordPress plugin and Shopify app mightiness beryllium worthy checking out.

Improve your mobile buying experience

Many radical bash their online buying connected a mobile phone, and that fig is lone growing. That’s wherefore your mobile site has to connection a large buying experience, akin to your website shown connected a computer. We telephone this mobile parity. Your mobile pages should load quickly, enactment properly, and person nary unnecessary distractions. People should not person to hold for your leafage to load, lone to beryllium confronted with things jumping astir and buttons that aren’t clickable.

Example of desktop and mobile mentation of a website: Etsy

Keep the plan of your mobile tract elemental portion inactive offering the branding acquisition that radical are acquainted with. Especially connected your merchandise pages, you should connection a minimal magnitude of distraction to get radical to person arsenic rapidly arsenic possible. Make definite that your taxable is responsive and scales appropriately to each surface sizes without having aggregate designs. Give other attraction to the readability of your pages, particularly those with much than a spot of text, similar merchandise pages oregon blog posts.

Optimize the leafage velocity of your online store

Site velocity is an ongoing situation for astir websites, particularly since Google has declared it a ranking factor. For ecommerce sites, that’s adjacent much important due to the fact that a dilatory store tin outgo you customers. It is proven repeatedly that radical volition much apt bargain from an online store with due page speed. It’s besides a captious portion of different ranking factor, page experience.

How you amended the loading times of your store depends connected the benignant of store you’re running. Hosted platforms similar Shopify and Wix person built-in show enhancements, similar a CDN and representation optimization options. For these SaaS platforms, you’re somewhat constricted to the choices they make. If you tally a WooCommerce store connected WordPress, you person much power implicit your performance. You tin take your hosting plans, your CDN, your cache management, et cetera. Of course, determination is nary incorrect solution. Pick immoderate fits your goals and budget.

Improve your code

Many of the show improvements you tin marque are recovered successful your code. Make definite that the codification of your taxable is thin and mean. Fix scripts that artifact the rendering of your contented successful the DOM. Minify your codification and effort to adhd lazy loading to images wherever it makes sense. Don’t trust connected JavaScript for loading captious functionality and content.

All the evergreen tract velocity tactics should besides beryllium applied to your online store. Think optimizing your images, uninstalling unnecessary apps and plugins, updating your CMS and plugins, optimizing your caching, minimizing the fig of HTTP requests, asynchronously loading scripts, et cetera. To get an thought of wherever you should start, marque definite to look astatine the Core Web Vitals.

User acquisition improves conversion rates

Related to method SEO and branding, it’s important to beryllium alert of the wide acquisition your online store offers its users. You request to assistance customers consciousness harmless and invited earlier they are acceptable to bargain from your store. A well-optimized online store is simply a joyousness to use, offers a harmless and unafraid buying experience, and loads successful nary clip — some connected mobile and desktop. Photography, typography, and contented besides lend to idiosyncratic experience.

User experience is besides astir taking distant frustrations and barriers for users to scope their goals quickly. It’s astir optimizing merchandise pages, CTAs, and outgo flows to get radical moving done the process without issue. Focusing connected idiosyncratic acquisition tin assistance you amended your store’s conversion rates. In addition, it builds a narration with the lawsuit and helps them travel backmost for more. Build marque loyalty done a pleasant idiosyncratic experience. So adhd an enactment for impermanent checkout, marque your tract hunt work, amended the substance connected your CTAs, and connection due faceted navigation. To springiness a fewer examples.

Don’t underestimate the value of content

Content is, and volition remain, inactive a precise important portion of SEO. Ecommerce SEO is nary objection to this rule. Having large contented connected your website, and a due content SEO strategy tin assistance Google and your customers take your store supra your competitors.

Keyword probe for your online store

An important facet is figuring retired which keywords you tin people — and which keywords your imaginable customers are searching for. It gives you a amended consciousness of the contention and the scenery you are operating in. While doing keyword research for your online store, you’ll besides uncover antithetic hunt intents. Often enough, the lawsuit doesn’t travel a consecutive enactment successful their buying journey.

However, you tin usher imaginable customers during their purchaser travel with adjuvant contented successful the close spot astatine the close time. For this, you tin usage proven selling strategies similar the AIDA exemplary (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) to usher a lawsuit from discovering their request to guiding them to a purchase. At immoderate touchpoint during their journey, you request to beryllium determination to enactment portion of their purchaser journey. Keyword probe volition assistance you uncover the presumption searchers usage during the antithetic sections — helping you constitute contented that is invaluable and connected point.

Improve class pages for ecommerce SEO

Often, category pages tin beryllium easier to fertile than idiosyncratic merchandise pages. You tin acceptable them up to people a broader acceptable of presumption alternatively of 1 circumstantial product. Your keyword probe tin assistance you usage keywords that your assemblage searches for. Give your class pages a bully rubric and meta statement featuring the keywords you privation the leafage to fertile for. In addition, prime a due URL operation for your class pages. Keep them abbreviated and focused.

Add a portion of substance to the class leafage to springiness Google and customers much penetration into what this leafage holds. Don’t overdo it, though; it doesn’t person to beryllium a partition of text. Just guarantee that it is written for humans and isn’t stuffed with your keywords. Add large merchandise images to your class pages and nexus to them from different applicable pages connected your website.

Again, see hunt intent here; class pages should people and connection solutions for ‘browsing’ behavior. This differs from what you bash with idiosyncratic merchandise pages. For class pages, you privation to fertile for “Black Dresses” portion your merchandise leafage mightiness privation to fertile for “Black Dress”.

Add a blog to your online store

One of the astir important ways of promoting your online store is via contented marketing. Adding a blog to your tract gives you a scope of options to fertile successful the hunt engines and pull a caller question of customers.

While your merchandise descriptions and landing pages let you to speech astir circumstantial products, a blog tin beryllium overmuch much flexible. Here, you tin dive deeper into your product, your business, and topics related to what you sell. Just marque definite it’s applicable to the radical you’re trying to target.

Zappos has a large blog with fantabulous contented connected assorted applicable topics.

With high-quality content, you amusement that you are passionate astir your merchandise and that you are an adept connected the topic. Trust and expertise are important factors for Google and visitors to find the concern they privation to bargain their products from.

Relevant contented has a large accidental of ranking if you people the close keywords. You tin constitute all-encompassing, authoritative cornerstone content that you tin usage arsenic a basal for your contented strategy. Supporting those articles, you tin spell into much item astir circumstantial aspects. For instance, the usher you are speechmaking present is supported by galore articles connected ecommerce SEO topics which are each interlinked.

Improve your merchandise pages for SEO and conversion

Your merchandise leafage is wherever the magic happens. Here, you privation your customers to deed that bargain fastener without hesitation. But what are the aspects of an fantabulous merchandise page? What tin you bash to amended your product leafage SEO? 

Write large titles and meta descriptions

The words you usage to picture your articles are essential. Of course, this besides goes for the words you supply for your merchandise to beryllium utilized successful the SERPs — the titles and the meta descriptions. In 2021, Google was actively rewriting much leafage titles than ever. According to them, excessively galore sites were utilizing non-descript oregon spammy titles. Therefore, it is adjacent much important to amended your titles and support an oculus connected what Google is showing for your products.

Using WordPress/WooCommerce SEO plugins and Shopify SEO apps similar Yoast SEO for Shopify, you tin acceptable up templates for some titles and meta descriptions, truthful they travel a akin pattern. This saves you time, and you won’t person to bash everything by hand. Of course, you should constitute everything by manus for your astir important articles and pages. Make them basal out!

Write your ain merchandise descriptions

We already touched connected this taxable concisely portion discussing the hazard of duplicate content. To forestall your merchandise descriptions from being the aforesaid arsenic 100+ online stores retired there, you request to constitute them yourself.  If you person a ton of products, commencement with the ones astir important oregon astir valuable.

Example of an elaborate and informative statement connected Armed Angels webshop.

Be definite to constitute successful the connection your assemblage uses to find and picture these products. Don’t usage jargon oregon made-up words that lone a fewer radical volition understand. Good product descriptions are casual to grasp and casual to read. Also, enactment distant from walls of substance — usage a bully header hierarchy and interruption up the substance with paragraphs and lists for readability.

Add unique, high-quality merchandise photos

Excellent product images are different large mode to acceptable yourself isolated from your competitors. Your lawsuit wants to spot your products successful detail. Even if you person an offline store arsenic well, photos amusement what your products look similar and springiness you that borderline implicit competitors who conscionable usage the images provided by the manufacturer. Try to instrumentality authentic photos and bash it yourself. Make definite they are high-quality and amusement your merchandise successful usage to amusement what it looks similar successful real-life situations.

Everlane combines large merchandise photography with animated GIFs to amusement their backpack successful use.

If you’ve changeable bully photos of your products, optimize them for the close size, compress them and springiness them a due SEO-proof name. Use the merchandise sanction successful the representation record sanction and the alt text erstwhile you upload it to your store.

Add reviews of your merchandise oregon service

Reviews are incredibly important for your business. Collect them, show them and adhd reappraisal and ratings structured data. It tin nudge customers to bargain your merchandise oregon service. It besides helps Google crook those reviews into highlighted listings successful the hunt results — with stars and all.

Fable England shows a reviews tab adjacent to their products that allows you to scroll done reviews.

Most shoppers look up reviews earlier buying a merchandise oregon deciding connected a service. While the availability of reviews connected your merchandise pages helps build trust, they request to beryllium genuine. Don’t people fake reviews oregon lone people the ones that overgarment your merchandise oregon work successful a affirmative light. Even antagonistic reviews person a place! What’s more, however you respond to antagonistic reviews says a batch astir you and your business.

Add related products for cross-selling and interior linking

To summation the conversion complaint and the full magnitude spent per cart, you tin usage a assortment of tactics. One of those tactics is adding related products connected your merchandise pages and adjacent connected your checkout screen, though you request to trial that 2nd enactment truthful that it doesn’t harm the checkout process.

The aforesaid goes for a database of alternate products for the 1 a lawsuit is looking for. An ‘Other customers besides look at’ diagnostic helps uncover much products for your customers, positive it helps them scope their extremity much quickly. In addition, this helps your interior linking arsenic well. By doing this, you marque it easier for customers and hunt engines to scope antithetic parts of your site.

Improve the buying acquisition with filters

For online stores, faceted navigation is simply a must-have connected class pages. Faceted navigation — besides known arsenic product filters —, lets users filter their hunt to a much manageable level. We each cognize filters similar size, price, color, brand, et cetera. Offering ample filter options genuinely improves a shopper’s acquisition connected your site. Filters springiness them the anticipation of uncovering a merchandise with overmuch little friction.

Filtering (subcategories, availability, price, country) connected a class leafage of Ten Thousand Villages.

When acceptable up correctly, they should enactment without issue. The problems with faceted navigation commencement whenever this strategy spits retired a monolithic magnitude of indexable URLs, acknowledgment to the filtered parameters. This could pb to duplicate content, scale bloat, and crawling issues. These URLs mustn’t get indexed by Google.

Handle out-of-stock products

Every online store volition yet scope a constituent wherever products tally retired of stock. How you woody with that is much important. Manage expectations by showing erstwhile this merchandise volition beryllium backmost successful stock. Or connection ways to support them successful the loop by offering to nonstop an email erstwhile it’s disposable again. There’s much you tin bash to handle products that are retired of stock, but it is important to enactment upon it to amusement imaginable customers and Google that you’re progressive and trustworthy.

Site structure, navigation, and interior linking

Site structure is indispensable for each tract — and the larger your tract is, the much important it gets to support it nether control. Setting everything up transparently helps customers and hunt engines find their mode connected your ecommerce tract easily. As Google uses the operation to recognize your site, you request to deliberation astir however you nexus everything together. With due interior linking, you tin awesome to Google which pages are the astir important ones. It volition prioritize these implicit other, less-linked pages.

Think astir your navigation

The aforesaid goes for your navigation. Well-thought-out navigation doesn’t conscionable delight Google, but users arsenic well. Search engines similar Google usage the navigation of your online store to uncover your content. They besides usage your navigation and your tract operation to link the assorted parts of your site.

Google, for instance, advises store owners to adhd links from menus to class pages, from class pages to sub-category pages, and yet from sub-category pages to each merchandise pages. It’s captious to nexus to each the products you privation to person indexed. Don’t hide to adhd your astir important pages and categories to the footer, arsenic that is important existent estate!

Don’t hide astir interior linking

Other than having a due navigation and tract operation successful place, you besides request to nexus related contented to each other. This shows hunt engines what pages and topics are related to each different and which pages are astir important. It besides helps tract visitors find different related contented oregon pages to the leafage their presently on, keeping them connected your tract and helping them find what they are looking for. When you person a blog, interior links besides springiness you a large accidental to nexus straight to circumstantial products oregon categories that are related to that topic. Use internal linking to amusement the value of pages and assistance users navigate done your site.

Link gathering for online stores

You shouldn’t underestimate the powerfulness of link building. These are links from different websites starring to your products and/or content. This is, to this day, an important ranking origin for hunt engines. Not conscionable having arsenic galore links to your website arsenic possible, they request to travel from applicable websites and marque sense. 

You request to people contented that radical volition nexus to for this to happen. That doesn’t strictly person to beryllium a blog post, but that could besides beryllium a buying guide, an infographic, a instrumentality that helps radical marque decisions, archetypal research, et cetera. Excellent, unsocial contented has a bigger accidental of getting links from applicable sites and people.

Another link gathering strategy is to scope retired to your section assemblage to get them to speech astir you. Or you could put successful influencer selling and integer PR to boost your online store.

Marketing and ecommerce SEO

You tin beryllium and hold for radical to amusement up successful your online store, oregon you tin act. While not technically SEO, selling is inactive astatine your disposal — and there’s a batch you tin do. We’ve already talked astir contented marketing, but we’ll besides sermon societal media, ads, and video marketing.

Social media

Everybody knows societal media tin bash a batch of bully erstwhile utilized right. So, usage it to your advantage. It won’t assistance your store fertile better, but it tin assistance you get and physique an audience. It tin relation arsenic an hold of ecommerce SEO, and it is simply a fantastic mode of contacting your customers. Social media marketing is indispensable for your branding — it’s wherever radical tin spot you and what you do. Make the astir of it!

Video marketing

Video is huge, and its maturation is obscurity adjacent stopping. Invest successful video SEO if you person the budget. Just marque definite it looks bully and represents your business. With video, it’s important to cognize what you privation to achieve. Do you privation to get recognized connected YouTube and person your videos fertile good there? Then that’s wherever you should absorption your attraction arsenic simply adding a fewer videos to your store won’t assistance successful this situation.

Do you privation to nutrient the champion videos connected your ecommerce site? Then you request to deliberation astir wherever you privation to big these and however to marque them click with your audience. Want videos to bash good successful the integrated hunt results? That’s thing other entirely. Figure retired if you privation to absorption connected videos for YouTube oregon your ain site.

Running paid ads

Running ads successful the hunt results is different mode to basal retired from the crowd. It gives you the enactment to bid for circumstantial keywords and — depending connected your niche — tin get you a comparatively inexpensive mode to the apical of the hunt results.

Fledgling stores often trust connected paid ads to get noticed successful the hunt results. There’s thing incorrect with this, of course. But, with paid ads, you indispensable support paying, oregon other your watercourse of customers volition adust up. It’s not a sensible strategy to conscionable absorption connected moving paid ads. Combine it with SEO, societal media, and contented marketing.

Google Shopping feed/Merchant Center

While it is bully to absorption connected getting your products recovered successful Google’s integrated hunt results, astir online stores besides enactment effort into Google Shopping. Google helps customers find the champion products for the champion prices successful the Shopping section. In 2020, Google made it escaped for merchants to adhd their products to the Shopping section. Simply motion up for Google Merchant Center, correctly capable successful each the required information astir your concern and travel the guidelines.

Local SEO for ecommerce

If you harvester your online store with a brick-and-mortar one, you indispensable besides absorption connected local SEO. Discover however your online and offline stores tin enactment each different to fortify each other. Write contented optimized for your locale and physique bully landing pages that assistance you get noticed for searches successful your area. We besides connection a local SEO plugin that tin assistance you optimize your website for a section audience. For instance, it adds due concern determination schema structured information for your store and helps you get your details successful Google Maps.

Is your online store connected Shopify oregon WordPress? 

Shopify is 1 of the biggest ecommerce platforms retired there. And WordPress powers astir 43% of each websites worldwide. Both WooCommerce and Shopify are fantabulous choices for your online store. 

For WordPress sites, galore of the ecommerce stores are powered by WooCommerce. It’s a coagulated level that does a batch retired of the box. Put the ecommerce tips from this usher into practice, and you are good connected your mode to an optimized store.

If your online store is connected Shopify, you’ve chosen a level focused connected ecommerce. It comes with beauteous overmuch everything you request consecutive retired of the box. If determination is thing you’re missing, determination are tons of apps that tin assistance you out. Although astir SEO proposal is level agnostic and this usher volition already springiness you tons of input, we besides person a guide connected Shopify SEO to assistance you get your Shopify store ranking high.

WooCommerce SEO plugin by Yoast SEO

To assistance you rapidly acceptable up WooCommerce for optimal SEO, we built the WooCommerce SEO add-on for Yoast SEO. Our WooCommerce SEO plugin adds respective other features portion besides improving the codification WooCommerce puts retired to marque it much understandable for hunt engines. It’s an indispensable instrumentality if you privation to get the astir retired of our WooCommerce store. You tin usage this add-on with some the escaped and Premium mentation of Yoast SEO.

Yoast SEO for Shopify app

One of the astir singular aspects of Shopify is that you tin amended your store by moving apps. There are apps for everything, from reappraisal absorption to email selling and representation optimization to cross-selling products. One of the astir fashionable categories is ecommerce SEO, and we’re arrogant to connection a Yoast SEO for Shopify app arsenic well.

Our app improves the method SEO of your Shopify store portion besides offering features that assistance you nutrient the champion imaginable product-related content. It comes with SEO and readability analyses, assorted controls for handling however Google crawls your site, and an awesome Schema structured information implementation that instantly helps hunt engines recognize your products.

The Yoast SEO for Shopify app erstwhile you’re moving connected your merchandise page.

All astir ecommerce SEO

That’s it! You’ve conscionable learned a lot. But though this is billed arsenic a thorough guide, a analyzable taxable similar ecommerce SEO cannot beryllium contained successful 1 azygous guide. Where possible, we’ve linked to related articles that spell deeper into a circumstantial item — work these to grow your knowledge!