4 Technical SEO Elements from Top Ecommerce SEO Agencies

Creating high-converting product pages is the foundation of your eCommerce agency’s success.

HigherVisibility states, “Businesses with over 40 landing pages generate 12 times more leads than those with 1 to 5 landing pages.” This is where technical SEO elements come to the rescue.

Leading Pay-for-performance SEO agencies integrate technical elements (page performance, visibility, and user experience) to improve their performance. It starts with the optimization of page load speed and the implementation of canonical tags.

What Are High-Converting Product Pages?

High-converting product pages are web pages on an eCommerce site. It maximizes the likelihood of converting visitors into customers. eCommerce SEO pros can easily highlight their product pages using compelling visuals, persuasive copy, and strategic layouts.

Related: Effective Strategies for E-Commerce Product Page SEO

Key elements of high-converting product pages include:

• Clear and High-Quality Images: Multiple high-resolution photos or videos from different angles, often with zoom capabilities.
• Detailed and Persuasive Descriptions: Comprehensive product details, including features, benefits, and usage information, are presented in a way that appeals to the target audience.

Source: Neil Patel

• Strong Call-to-Action (CTA): Prominent, easy-to-find buttons like “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” that prompt users to take the next step.
• Customer Reviews and Ratings: User-generated content that builds trust and provides social proof of the product’s value.
• Price and Availability: Transparent pricing information, including discounts and real-time availability status.
• Trust Signals: Security badges, guarantees, return policies, and other elements that reduce buyer hesitation.
• Fast Load Times: Quick page loading to prevent losing potential customers due to slow performance.
• Mobile Optimization: Ensuring the page is fully responsive and functional on all devices.

Understanding Technical SEO for Product Pages

Technical SEO is the foundation for search engine crawlers to see your product pages. It’s all about making your site smooth and efficient, allowing search engines to crawl easily.

Understand and index the product information. Here’s a breakdown of key aspects of technical SEO:

Crawlability and Indexing

• Clean URL Structure: Use descriptive URLs with relevant keywords and avoid complex structures.
• XML Sitemaps: Create and submit an XML Sitemap listing all your product pages to search engines. This helps them discover new and updated products.
• Robots.txt: Ensure your robots.txt file isn’t accidentally blocking search engines from crawling your product pages.

Source: Semrush 

User Experience and Speed

• Mobile-friendliness: Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as many searches now happen on mobile devices.
• Fast Loading Speed: Optimize product pages to load quickly. Slow loading times can hurt your SEO and discourage visitors.
• Clear Navigation: A user-friendly site helps search engines understand your website structure and navigate to product pages.

Content and Optimization

• Structured Data: Implement eCommerce structured data markup to provide rich snippets in search results. This can include product details like price, availability, ratings, etc.
• Unique Product Descriptions: Avoid duplicate content across product pages. Write informative and unique descriptions targeting relevant keywords.
• Internal Linking: Link to relevant product pages from other categories or blog posts on your site. This helps distribute link juice and improve product discoverability.

Also Read: Internal Linking for Ecommerce: Best Practices to Follow

Key Technical SEO Elements for High-Converting Product Pages

1. Site Structure and Navigation

If you want your customers to find what they want easily, you must design your eCommerce website as a physical store. This is where site structure and navigation come to the rescue.

Site Structure

• Hierarchical (layered): Ideally, your structure should have no more than three levels. This means visitors can reach any product page from the homepage within three clicks (e.g., Homepage > Category > Subcategory > Product).
• Category and Subcategory: These are the main groupings of your products. Imagine them as departments in a store (e.g., Clothing > Men’s Shirts > Casual Shirts).
• Flat Structure (for small stores): A flat structure with all products listed on one or two pages might be sufficient if you have a limited number of products.

Navigation

• Global Navigation: This is the main menu, typically displayed horizontally across the top of the page. It should include links to your top-level categories, important pages like “About Us” or “Contact,” and maybe even a login/account section.
• Mega Menus (optional): If you have many categories and subcategories, consider using a mega menu that unfolds on hover to reveal subcategories.
• Breadcrumbs: These small navigational links appear near the top of the page, showing the visitor their current location within the website structure (e.g., Home > Clothing > Shirts).
• Search Bar: Make it easy for users to find specific products by including a search bar prominently on your website.

2. Optimize Product Pages

Product pages are crucial for any ecommerce website. Optimizing them properly contributes to the overall success of your online retail store.

It enhances user experience (UX), improves search engine visibility (SEO), increases conversion rates, builds trust and credibility, and sets your e-commerce site apart from competitors.

Source: Semrush

The fundamental elements of every eCommerce store revolve around product pages and product content.

According to a  report from Convertcart, “87% of customers feel that content is the deciding factor when looking to purchase an item.”

The types of content, like product specifications, reviews, FAQs, and videos, are vital for consumers when purchasing a product or visiting its website.

Optimizing every element on your e-commerce product page may not be necessary. Let’s focus on the essential elements that require attention: The product’s name, descriptions, images, and reviews.

Product Name

Your product’s name is very important. Using it in the SEO title and URL of the product page could be a bonus.

Adding a common search term or keyword phrase to your products is advisable.

• Create descriptive and keyword-rich product titles.
• Make sure titles accurately represent the item.
• Ensure they are concise but informative.

Let’s say you’re selling smartphones. You should include the brand and model in the product name.

For instance,

Instead of just ‘Android Smartphone,’ go for something like ‘Samsung Galaxy S21.’ You can include specific keywords in the title and URL. This detailed product naming helps your eCommerce SEO agency to gather customers and find the exact device they want.

3. Page Load Speed Optimization

People are impatient, and slow loading times can lead to them bouncing off your site before seeing your products. Here are some key ways to optimize your page load speed:

Image Optimization

• Reduce image size: Use tools like TinyPNG or Kraken.io to compress images without sacrificing quality.
• Choose the right format: JPEG is generally good for photos, while PNG is better for graphics with sharp lines and text.
• Resize images: Ensure images aren’t larger than they need to be displayed on your website.
• Consider lazy loading: This technique delays loading images outside the viewport until they are scrolled into view.

Reduce HTTP requests

Whenever a browser requests a file from your server (an image, a CSS file, a or a Javascript file), it creates an HTTP request. Minimizing these requests can improve speed.

• Combine files: Combine multiple CSS or Javascript files into single files to reduce requests.
• Minimize redirects: Redirects add extra steps to loading a page. Aim for a clean URL structure to avoid unnecessary redirects.

4. URL Structure and Canonicalization

Here’s a strategy to tackle URL structure and canonicalization for your eCommerce website:

URL Structure

• Use a clear hierarchy with a maximum of 3 levels (e.g., [invalid URL removed]).
• Include the primary category and relevant subcategories in the URL path.

Product Pages

• Ideally, include the product name and a unique identifier (if applicable)  in the URL (e.g., [invalid URL removed]).
• Avoid using generic terms like “product” or “item” in the URL.

Source: Twaino

• Separate words in your URL with hyphens for readability. Avoid underscores or camel cases.
• Use static URLs whenever possible. Avoid dynamic URLs with excessive parameters (e.g., sorting options, filters).

Canonicalization

• Look for product pages with thin content, variations of the same product with different URLs (color, size), or filtered category pages.
• If multiple URLs point to the same product with minimal variations (e.g., color), use a 301 redirect to the main product page. This tells search engines the preferred version.
• For filtered category pages with slightly different content (e.g., sorted by price), use the rel=”canonical” tag in the head section of the page. Point it to the unfiltered category page as the canonical version.

FAQs: 

Q1. How Does Technical SEO Impact Product Page Performance?

Technical SEO impacts product page performance by improving search engine visibility, enhancing user experience, and increasing page load speed.

Key elements include optimizing page speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, implementing structured data, and using canonical tags.

Q2. What Are The Elements Of A High-Converting Product Page?

The elements of a high-converting product page include:

• High-Quality Visuals: Clear, detailed images and videos from multiple angles.
• Compelling Descriptions: Detailed, persuasive product descriptions highlighting features and benefits.
• Strong Calls-to-Action (CTAs): Prominent, clear buttons like “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now.”
• Customer Reviews and Ratings: User-generated reviews and star ratings for social proof.
• Transparent Pricing and Availability: Clear prices, discounts, and stock status display.
• Trust Signals: Security badges, return policies, and guarantees to build trust.

Q3. How To Optimize Product Pages For SEO?

Optimizing product pages for SEO involves several key steps to improve visibility and attract organic traffic:

• Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords with commercial intent that customers are likely to search for.
• Optimized Product Titles: Include the title tag’s primary keywords and product attributes.
• Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions that encourage clicks and include relevant keywords.
• URL Structure: Use clean and descriptive URLs that include keywords related to the product.
• Header Tags: Use H1, H2, and H3 tags to structure content and include targeted keyword variations.

Q3. How Do Ecommerce SEO Agencies Help Improve Product Page Performance?

Ecommerce SEO agencies help improve product page performance through various strategies and tactics to enhance visibility, user experience, and conversion rates. Here are several ways they achieve this:

• Keyword Optimization: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify relevant and high-converting keywords for product pages.
• On-Page SEO: Optimizing product titles, meta descriptions, headers, and content with targeted keywords to improve search engine rankings.
• Technical SEO: Ensuring that product pages are optimized for speed, mobile responsiveness, structured data markup, and canonical tags to enhance crawling and indexing by search engines.
• Content Optimization: Creating compelling and unique product descriptions that inform and persuade potential customers to make a purchase.