How to Double Monthly Traffic Within Six Months – [eCommerce 2024 Case Study]

Do you person an eCommerce website with hundreds of class pages and thousands of merchandise pages?

Learn however to turn your integrated Google postulation successful this travel on lawsuit study.

I’ll usher you step-by-step truthful you tin larn the aforesaid tactics that my squad astatine The Search Initiative utilized to treble our client’s integrated postulation connected their eCommerce sneaker website wrong six months.

You’ll larn however to execute akin results by:

Before jumping into the strategy, here’s a summary of the main challenges that the tract was facing erstwhile the lawsuit joined our agency.

And if you similar to devour your contented via video, you tin ticker the afloat interruption down here:

The Challenge

This eCommerce tract operates successful 1 of the astir saturated and competitory markets – fashion. More specifically, the tract sells sneakers from the biggest brands crossed the globe, which means that it has thousands of merchandise pages and hundreds of class pages.

The main nonsubjective of this campaign, which commenced successful April 2021, was to summation the site’s keyword visibility and hunt postulation to the website successful clip for Thanksgiving and Christmas successful 2021.

To execute this, we focused connected optimizing the contented and method aspects of the tract to supply the champion acquisition for customers.

The merchandise and class descriptions connected galore of the client’s pages were poorly optimized with standardized substance that didn’t convert. We truthful had to absorption connected making definite that these descriptions were good optimized truthful arsenic to prosecute and pass the user.

In addition, the tract had hundreds of merchandise pages that were not categorized decently which meant that navigating the tract was hard for customers. After optimizing the merchandise pages with amended descriptions, we physique backlinks towards them successful bid to amended the tract and page’s authority.

Below, you’ll find out, step-by-step, however to execute these unthinkable results truthful you tin replicate them connected your ain website(s).

Category & Product Page Optimization

The class and merchandise pages are astir apt the astir important pages connected your eCommerce site. These are the pages wherever you’re convincing users to bargain what you’re selling. So it’s crucial that the contented connected these pages is optimized for some hunt engines (keywords) and users (content).

In this section, you’ll larn however to optimize the contented connected your class (or collection) pages, arsenic good arsenic however to constitute descriptions for your products.

Optimizing Category Pages

The main intent of class (or collection) pages is to signifier the products you merchantability into logical groups, making it easier for visitors to “browse” and find what they’re looking for.

Optimizing isn’t conscionable astir ensuring that your contented includes the keyword(s) you privation to target.

You privation to marque definite that the contented connected your class pages is optimized to code the user’s hunt intent for the superior presumption you privation it to fertile for.

If the reply to some of these questions is no, here’s what you request to do:

You whitethorn travel crossed immoderate keywords with mixed intent, i.e. the results displayed whitethorn code much than 1 benignant of intent.

This is usually the lawsuit for broader hunt presumption with a higher hunt measurement similar “cheese”.

The apical effect from the supra illustration is informational. If you scroll down a small further, you tin spot that Google ranks pages that fulfill an informational intent.

Scrolling down adjacent further, you tin spot that the results person changed and present code a transactional intent instead.

In cases similar this, you privation to optimize your contented to lucifer the pages closest successful intent to yours. For example, if you are selling food connected your website, you should align your contented with akin eCommerce pages that are ranking successful the apical positions.

For instance, for an eCommerce website selling sweatshirts and looking to fertile for “mens sweatshirts”, you whitethorn find that the competing pages person a batch little contented than you connected their collections pages.

The supra top-ranking leafage lone has a mates of sentences astatine the apical explaining the benignant of products that the idiosyncratic tin find, but yours (like our client’s) whitethorn person tons of contented astatine the bottommost of the page.

Therefore, to align your leafage with this competing page, you would look to determination your contented “above the fold” (i.e. supra the products) and adhd a “Read more” functionality.

Why? Because it’s wide that having tons of substance astatine the bottommost of the leafage offers small worth to the idiosyncratic arsenic they whitethorn ne'er scope the bottom.

Adding the “Read more” functionality allows you to see your astir important keywords wrong the archetypal paragraph, which is displayed to each users.

It besides provides a amended idiosyncratic acquisition due to the fact that visitors who privation to larn much astir the products you connection person the prime to click done to work much without impeding the acquisition of those who don’t.

For much insights into however to audit and optimize your contented (for immoderate page), check retired this article.

How To Write Product Descriptions

Your merchandise descriptions are a deciding origin connected whether a visitant purchases connected your tract oregon not.

The champion merchandise descriptions convey the product’s worth to the visitant and person them to bargain it.

Here are the apical tips connected however to constitute well-optimized merchandise descriptions for your eCommerce website:

1. Write For Your Target Customer

Write descriptions with your people lawsuit successful mind, not hunt engines.

Remember that antithetic products whitethorn beryllium suitable for antithetic types of customers. Factors similar fund and acquisition volition find which products your customers look at.

For example, utilizing connection similar “great for beginners” oregon “perfect for beginners” tin assistance marque the user’s determination overmuch easier arsenic they’ll beryllium capable to rapidly determine whether the merchandise is close for them oregon not.

The magnitude of your merchandise descriptions should besides beryllium based connected your people customer’s needs i.e. the buyer’s awareness.

High Buyer Awareness

Customers who person a precocious purchaser consciousness volition already person a bully knowing of the merchandise and wherefore they request to acquisition it.

Here’s an illustration of a merchandise statement from Asos for men’s plain t-shirts that targets a lawsuit with precocious purchaser awareness.

There’s nary request to see hundreds of words of contented to picture a merchandise that everyone knows. Instead, the user’s apt going to skim the cardinal pieces of accusation astir the merchandise specified arsenic the color, sizing, acceptable etc.

Low Buyer Awareness

Users with a debased purchaser consciousness volition request a batch much accusation astir the merchandise successful bid to person them to buy.

Here’s an illustration of a merchandise statement for a TV connected John Lewis’ site that targets a lawsuit with debased purchaser awareness.

This merchandise statement contains considerably much accusation astir the merchandise than the t-shirt example. The tract besides includes driblet down sections detailing the merchandise specifications and transportation information.

This is due to the fact that choosing a tv is much of an concern than a t-shirt, truthful the statement needs to beryllium thorough capable to person the lawsuit to click done and marque a purchase.

High And Low Buyer Awareness

There’s thing stopping you from penning descriptions that cater to some types of customers.

You tin person a shorter statement with the astir important facts/features astir the merchandise to cater a lawsuit with precocious purchaser consciousness followed by much elaborate accusation astir the product.

Here’s an illustration of a camera from Jessops, which caters to some types of users…

There are abbreviated slug points summarizing the cardinal features and specs for the camera for precocious purchaser awareness…

… and much elaborate accusation underneath for those with debased purchaser awareness.

2. Be Informative

Users privation to cognize everything they tin astir the merchandise earlier deciding connected whether to bargain oregon not, truthful guarantee that you see arsenic overmuch accusation astir the merchandise arsenic you can.

Apart from the basics similar the merchandise name, institution name, and shaper name, here’s a database of each of the kinds of things that you should see including (if applicable):

3. Make Your Descriptions Unique

It’s nary concealed that having duplicate content connected your tract volition impact your chances of ranking successful the hunt results.

Therefore, the biggest mistake you tin marque with merchandise descriptions is copying and pasting the manufacturers’ descriptions connected your site.

Here’s a statement taken straight from Dyson’s leafage for its hairdryer:

Here’s an eCommerce site that’s copied and pasted the statement connection for word.

Now, however galore web pages person the exact aforesaid copy? 731 to beryllium precise…

Unsurprisingly, the supra leafage doesn’t fertile for immoderate keywords that are related to “dyson hairsbreadth dryer”.

In fact, the leafage lone ranks for 1 keyword (“hair dryer david jones”). This goes to amusement that Google doesn’t privation to show aggregate versions of the aforesaid contented to its users and that it’s important that you guarantee each merchandise has its ain unsocial description.

4. Think About The Layout

How you operation and format your merchandise descriptions is conscionable arsenic important arsenic the transcript itself.

Make usage of headings and formatting to convey the cardinal points of accusation arsenic intelligibly arsenic possible.

Here’s a large illustration of however you whitethorn privation to operation your merchandise statement from UK-based retailer HiFi Gear.

The usage of tabs allows you to signifier the informational contented astir the merchandise and make a amended acquisition for the user.

Other ways to format your merchandise descriptions include:

Following the supra steps volition assistance you trade merchandise descriptions that are conscionable arsenic convincing arsenic they are informative.

Organizing Your Content For eCommerce Websites

For an eCommerce site, earlier you adjacent commencement to deliberation astir penning content, you request to deliberation astir however to signifier your content. eCommerce sites tin easy spiral into a messiness erstwhile merchandise pages are not categorized properly.

Thinking astir tract operation is simply a important constituent of your SEO strategy due to the fact that it plays a large portion successful however Google crawls and understands your website.

In different words, if the contented connected your website isn’t organized properly, Google (and your users, for that matter) volition conflict to find what they’re looking for.

Importantly, a wide tract operation provides Google penetration into however your pages are connected, allowing you to signifier a coagulated interior linking operation automatically.

eCommerce Site Structure

Your eCommerce tract operation should:

If you person products that acceptable into much than 1 class page, it’s champion signifier to usage a  rel=”canonical” tag to constituent to the default/most applicable class URL for the product.

eCommerce URL Structure

Your URLs (more specifically, your URL slugs) should bespeak your tract operation arsenic good arsenic beryllium wide and casual to work for your users.

I urge utilizing a URL operation similar this:

Here’s however it would look successful practice:

Internal Linking Opportunities

A well-organized website provides opportunities for you to adhd contextual interior links crossed your pages.

What are Internal Links?

Internal links are hyperlinks from a leafage connected the aforesaid website to different leafage connected that website. This is antithetic from outer links, which are hyperlinks from a leafage connected a website to a leafage connected different website.

Why Are Internal Links Important?

Internal links assistance Google observe caller content…

Google says, “Some pages are known due to the fact that Google has already crawled them before. Other pages are discovered erstwhile Google follows a nexus from a known leafage to a caller page.”

Therefore, if you person pages that person nary interior links pointing to them (aka orphan pages), past you’re making it intolerable for Google to crawl and scale them.

Internal links assistance convey the value of a page…

Google says, “The number of interior links pointing to a leafage is simply a signal to hunt engines about the comparative value of that page”.

For eCommerce sites successful particular, by providing relevant, contextual interior links, you tin support visitors connected your website for longer and usher them done a circumstantial way to marque a purchase.

Internal Linking Strategies For eCommerce Websites

Navigational Internal Links

If your website follows a clear silo structure, arsenic I person outlined below, you’ll marque your beingness overmuch easier erstwhile adding navigational interior links.

Navigational interior links are the links that you adhd to your website’s main navigation to marque it easier for users to find what they’re looking for and for Google to “see” the relationships betwixt your pages.

Each level should person an interior nexus pointing to the level supra and beneath it.

For example, Product pages should person interior links (for navigation purposes) to Sub Category pages, and Sub Category pages should person interior links to Category pages, and truthful on.

Horizontal Linking

Horizontal Linking is wherever you’re adding links to pages connected the aforesaid level alternatively of linking to genitor pages.

Linking to different related products connected your merchandise pages is simply a large mode of keeping users connected your site.

Consider adding the pursuing sections to your merchandise pages:

You tin bash the aforesaid with class pages by adding links to different applicable categories that would beryllium utile to the user.

Contextual Links

Apart from providing opportunities to fertile for long-tail keywords, having a blog conception connected your eCommerce website allows you to adhd relevant, contextual links to the scope of products you’re selling.

After all, the main extremity for an eCommerce website is to person visitors into paying customers.

For example, this eCommerce tract selling a scope of products has included an interior nexus connected its BBQ Party Essentials blog post to 1 of the applicable products that it sells.

Doing truthful provides an accidental for you to usher visitors who onshore connected your blog posts done to your class and merchandise pages. This way, you’re converting visitors looking for accusation (through the blog post) into paying customers (through your contextual links).

Check retired the video beneath this video to find retired much astir the champion practices for interior linking.

On-Page Optimization

One of the main pillars of SEO is on-page optimization.

On leafage optimization is astir making definite that elements similar the leafage titles, headings, meta descriptions and images connected your web pages are optimized for hunt engines.

This tin beryllium a daunting task for eCommerce websites with thousands of merchandise pages and hundreds of class pages (like our client).

For an eCommerce website, your astir important pages are going to beryllium the ones that are bringing successful the astir postulation and/or revenue.

How To Identify Pages With The Most Organic Traffic

Here’s however to find the apical pages with the astir integrated postulation connected your website via Google Analytics.

On the near sidebar, spell to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels > Organic Search

Then, click Landing Page and benignant by Sessions.

Note: you tin usage the Search diagnostic to filter retired lone your /product/ oregon /category/ pages.

How To Identify Top Performing Products

Here’s however to find the apical performing products connected your website via Google Analytics i.e. these are the pages that are bringing successful the astir gross to your site.

On the near sidebar, spell to Conversions > Ecommerce > Product Performance

It’s besides worthy noting that the astir important pages for an eCommerce website aren’t needfully the ones that are already ranking precocious connected Google.

For example, you mightiness person a caller merchandise leafage oregon class leafage that is struggling to fertile and you privation to propulsion further successful the hunt results.

In this case, it’s conscionable a substance of manually compiling a database of specified pages that you privation to absorption on. After all, you cognize your tract and products best.

Once you’ve identified the pages you privation to absorption on, travel the steps beneath to guarantee that connected leafage elements similar the images, headings, leafage titles and meta descriptions are optimized.

Image Alt Text Optimization

What Is Alt Text?

The representation alt substance (which is besides commonly referred to arsenic the “alt attribute” oregon “alt tag”) is an HTML tag utilized to picture the contents and relation of an representation connected a web leafage utilizing text.

Why Is Alt Text Important For SEO?

Alt substance is important for SEO because, if your images don’t person alt text, you’re missing retired on…

How To Write Optimized Image Alt Texts

Here are a fewer things to see erstwhile penning the alt substance for your images:

Here’s an illustration of a weak, good and large alt text:

Poor:

Ok:

Great:

H1 Heading Optimization

The H1 heading tag helps awesome to users and hunt engines what they tin expect to find connected your web pages.

So what happens erstwhile much than 1 of your pages has the aforesaid H1 tag?

When aggregate URLs person the aforesaid H1 heading, it makes it (slightly) much hard for hunt engines similar Google to place the astir suitable leafage for the user’s hunt query.

This tin perchance effect successful issues similar keyword cannibalization, which is wherever respective pages connected your website vie against each different for the aforesaid keywords and astatine the same, forestall each different from ranking to their potential.

How To Identify Pages With Duplicate H1 Tags

Most SEO audit tools volition prime up URLs with duplicate H1 tags. I’ll amusement you however to bash it utilizing ScreamingFrog’s SEO Spider Tool – it’s free!

1. Enter your website URL into the instrumentality and click “Start”

2. Wait for the instrumentality to crawl your website, if you’re utilizing the Free version, it’ll lone crawl the archetypal 500 URLs it encounters.

3. Click connected the H1 tab and nether the drop-down database connected the apical left-hand side, prime “Duplicate”.

4. You present person a database of each URLs containing duplicate H1 tags.

Note that you tin besides place URLs with aggregate H1 tags, URLs with H1 tags that are excessively agelong too!

How To Write Optimized H1 Tags For SEO

Here’s an illustration of a mediocre and large H1 heading for the keyword “best smartphone 2024”

Poor:

<h1>Best Smartphone 2024</h1>

Great:

<h1> These Are The Best Smartphones For Any Budget successful 2024 </h1>

Although some examples see an nonstop lucifer of the keyword astatine the opening of the heading, the second is amended optimized due to the fact that it besides includes further accusation astir what the leafage is about.

Optimizing Page Titles And Meta Descriptions For Product & Category Pages

A leafage rubric (or rubric tags) is the HTML constituent of a web leafage that looks similar this successful the hunt results leafage similar this:

They’re little descriptions of a webpage that are coded similar this:

<title>Best Smartphone 2024: 14 Best Phones To Buy | WIRED UK </title>

A meta statement is the HTML constituent of a web leafage that looks similar this successful the hunt results:

They’re somewhat longer descriptions of a webpage that are coded similar this:

<meta name="description" content= "These Are The Best Smartphones For Any Budget successful 2024 ; Apple iPhone 13. WIRED Recommends: A scope of sensible upgrades to the iPhone 12 keeps Apple on top."/>

It’s astir intolerable to constitute leafage titles and meta descriptions for eCommerce websites that perchance person thousands of merchandise pages and hundreds of class pages.

But optimizing these elements is important for your site’s SEO performance.

In cases similar this, the champion mode to spell astir “writing” leafage titles and meta descriptions is to make templates that you tin easy use to each merchandise and class page. That’s precisely what we did for this client.

Product Page Template

Category Page Template

An Important Point To Note

When penning your leafage titles and meta descriptions, marque definite that they are unique. This particularly applies to if you’re selling aggregate products from the aforesaid brand. Otherwise, you hazard the incorrect merchandise being ranked for the keyword that you’re targeting.

And if you privation to further amended your On-Page SEO, read our implicit On-Page SEO Checklist.

Backlinks Will Power Up Your On Content & On Page Optimization With

Once you’ve optimized the contented and connected leafage elements of your halfway landing pages (in this case, our client’s merchandise and class pages), the adjacent measurement is to physique backlinks towards them successful bid to amended authority.

Backlinks from applicable websites to your niche assistance turn some the domain’s authorization (aka Domain Authority) arsenic good arsenic the authorization of the leafage that you’re linking to (aka Page Authority).

One of the astir communal and effectual tactics to physique backlinks is by looking astatine your competitors.

How To Find Relevant Websites From Competitors

Using ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, benignant successful the superior keyword that you privation to people for the leafage you privation to physique links to.

For example, if you person an eCommerce store selling decorator sunglasses and privation to people the term: “ray prohibition clubmaster tortoise”.

Scroll down to the apical ranking pages.

Make a enactment of the domains of the apical 3 oregon 4 competing pages that are astir applicable to your website.

Head implicit to Ahrefs’ Link Intersect Tool and participate the 3 competing URLs nether the substance “Show maine who is linking to these domains oregon URLs”.

Then, participate your website’s domain nether the substance “But doesn’t nexus to (optional)”.

Click “Show nexus opportunities”. You present person a database of each websites that your competing websites person backlinks from, but your website does not.

To filter these further, click connected “All intersections” and deselect “1 target” and “2 targets” – this way, you volition lone spot websites wherever much than 2 of your competitors person a backlink from.

Once you’ve identified the websites that you privation links from, it’s important to take the close anchor texts.

Anchor Text Selection

The anchor substance is the clickable substance that takes the idiosyncratic to the people URL.

This clickable constituent is important erstwhile it comes to SEO arsenic they are factors that Google’s algorithms wage adjacent attraction to.

To cheque your website’s anchor substance distribution, participate your domain (or people URL) into ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool.

Scroll down until you scope “Anchors”.

In the supra example, the domain has mostly targeted, keyword-rich anchors.

Such a organisation whitethorn beryllium flagged by Google’s algorithm arsenic being manipulative due to the fact that previously, websites could easy fertile by securing backlinks with heavy targeted anchor texts. This maneuver nary longer works!

In general, here’s the safest and the astir earthy backlinks anchor organisation we urge aiming for based connected our ain interior research.

However, it’s champion to look astatine your competitors’ anchors successful your niche to find the perfect distribution.

Therefore, if you find that your domain (or people URL) has mostly keyword-rich anchors – equilibrium the organisation by gathering backlinks with either Branded, URL-based oregon generic anchors.

Find retired much astir anchor substance enactment and optimization here.

The client’s nexus illustration has accrued passim the twelvemonth with the fig of referring domains seeing a dependable growth:

Likewise, the site’s Domain Rating has grown from 36 astatine the commencement of the run to 45.

Here’s a snapshot of immoderate of the precocious prime links we’ve secured for the tract since the commencement of the campaign:

Core Web Vitals Checks

In June 2021, Google rolled retired the Page Experience update. It was the archetypal clip successful the hunt engine’s past that an algorithm update was announced earlier it was really rolled out.

This besides meant that for the archetypal time, SEOs could hole for the update by optimizing their websites to supply a amended leafage experience.

In summation to existing leafage acquisition metrics similar mobile-friendliness and HTTPS, the algorithm introduced 3 caller performance-related metrics called Core Web Vitals.

In this chapter, you’ll larn what the Core Web Vitals are and however to measurement your ain website’s show for these metrics.

What Are Core Web Vitals?

The Core Web Vitals measurement the loading (Largest Contentful Paint), interactivity (First Input Delay), and the ocular stableness of a leafage (Cumulative Layout Shift).

Largest Contentful Paint

Largest Contentful Paint (or LCP) looks astatine however agelong it takes for the largest portion of contented connected a web leafage to load.

Google recommends that your web pages’ LCP should beryllium no much than 2.5 seconds.

And don’t worry, I’ll amusement you however to optimize this later.

First Input Delay

First Input Delay (or FID) measures the clip it takes for the web browser to respond to the user’s archetypal enactment connected a web page.

Here is immoderate illustration of what constitutes arsenic an interaction:

Google recommends that your web pages’ FID should beryllium 100 milliseconds oregon less.

Cumulative Layout Shift

Cumulative Layout Shift (or CLS) looks for immoderate unexpected layout shifts connected a web page. CLS is erstwhile a “visible constituent changes its presumption from 1 rendered framework to the next”.

Google recommends that your web pages’ CLS people should beryllium less than 0.1.

How To Measure Core Web Vitals

There are respective ways to measurement your website’s Core Web Vitals performance. You tin usage the Chrome User Experience Report and PageSpeed Insights reports to measurement the Core Web Vitals for idiosyncratic URLs, but the simplest and possibly astir utile method is via the ​Core Web Vitals study successful Google Search Console.

The study tells you precisely which URLs connected your website person passed oregon failed the Core Web Vitals people Google is looking for.

The study splits your URLs into 3 categories (Poor URLs, URLs that request betterment and Good URLs) for some desktop and mobile.

Click “OPEN REPORT” connected either Mobile oregon Desktop, and you’ll find much accusation connected the circumstantial URLs that person been affected.

Optimizing Largest Contentful Paint

To find the LCP of a page, participate your URL into Google’s PageSpeed Insights instrumentality and deed “Analyze”.

Scroll to the Diagnostics conception of the results.

From the supra example, the LCP is the Featured Image connected the web page.

You tin find retired much connected however to measurement and optimize your LCP here.

Optimizing First Input Delay

Measuring First Input Delay tin lone hap successful the tract (i.e. successful existent time, with existent users). This is due to the fact that it requires existent users to interact with the web leafage earlier the times tin beryllium recorded.

Heavy JavaScript execution is the astir communal origin of web pages with a mediocre FID score. Therefore, optimizing however the JS connected your website is parsed, compiled, and executed is the main mode to amended your FID score.

Google recommends utilizing async oregon defer for scripts that are not indispensable for critical-path oregon above-the-fold content.

You tin find retired much connected however to optimize FID here.

Optimizing Cumulative Layout Shift

As with LCP, you tin find the CLS of a web leafage connected the Diagnostics conception of the PageSpeed Insights report.

The point you’re looking for is: “Avoid ample layout shifts”.

One elemental mode to debar unexpected layout shifts is to always see size attributes (width and height) connected images and video elements. This ensures that the browser tin allocate the close magnitude of abstraction successful the web leafage portion the representation oregon video is loading. Here’s an example:

Find retired much astir however to optimize your CLS scores here.

Also, cheque retired our complete usher to Site Speed Optimization.

The Results

The keyword visibility graph taken from ahrefs shows however the fig of keywords that the lawsuit was ranking for wrong the apical 10 positions grew from 3,629 keywords astatine the commencement of the run to 17,265 – an summation of 375.75%!

Within six months, the client’s integrated postulation and gross person seen the pursuing growth:

When compared year-on-year, the client’s conversions and gross person grown arsenic follows:

Conclusion

This lawsuit survey emphasizes the value of taking a afloat scale, holistic attack to SEO connected your eCommerce website.

You’ve learned however to:

If you request a manus with your eCommerce website, get successful interaction with my squad implicit astatine The Search Initiative.